To Have a Home
by Hatsu Yukiya
Summary: Jack pisses off the wrong person and as a result finds himself stripped of his powers and turned human. Stuck in Burgess with no way to contact the other Guardians, what is he to do? And what happens when he discovers the family he didn't know he had? Cover art by rollingstarr/Itsuka.Yamazaki.
1. Chapter 1

Jamie slumped over his desk, methodically tapping his pencil against the wood. His teacher was droning on and on about some revolution in Mexico, and he really couldn't find himself caring. American History was never his strong point, and he could not understand for the life of him why a sixth-grade curriculum included several mass executions and a civil war in Texas. Shouldn't this be a high school thing? He sighed, propping up his head with his hand. At least this class was the final one of the day, and then he was out for Friday.

He spared a glance out the window and smiled slightly. It was snowing lightly, tiny flakes drifting to the ground in an almost hypnotic pattern. If Jack were in town, it'd probably be falling faster and heavier, but the small scale of the snowfall probably meant he wouldn't get into Burgess until later that night. Jack was in the northeast United States at least; the snowing itself proved that. Jamie sighed. He'd hardly seen Jack all winter. The older boy was always somewhere else, "doing his civil duty as the spirit of winter," or whatever he had said.

But all that was about to end, for Jack had promised to be in Burgess that very weekend and all through Christmas break, which would begin the middle of next week. Jamie could hardly wait for the chance to see his friend again. He and Sophie practically counted down the days until he arrived. They were going to go sledding, have snowball fights, all the winter jazz. It was going to be great, and it would take Jamie's mind off of some things going on at home.

Until then, however, he was stuck in a class he was nearly failing, unsuccessfully attempting to translate the dull words of his teacher, Mrs. McMahon, into something that made sense. Jamie sighed and forced his eyes open for the thousandth time. Class was almost over, at least.

"...the Texan rebels then convinced Santa Anna to sign over the rights to Texas, but when Santa Anna returned to the capitol, he tried to tell the Mexican government that he was forced into the negotiation and to annul the contract. The government refused, and Texas would be its own independent country for the next nine years which we'll talk about on Monday."

Mrs. McMahon switched off the overhead showcasing the notes and the class let out a collective held breath as they began packing up their things. Jamie stretched his arms and shoved his empty notebook into his backpack, getting ready to book it out the door the minute the bell rang. His teacher, it seemed, had other ideas.

"Calm down, calm down!" she instructed firmly. "Class isn't over yet. There is still something I'd like to go over with you all."

The class groaned and disappointedly settled back into their seats, grumbling amongst themselves. The teacher paid no attention and continued, "As you may have heard from some of my past students, every year I assign an ancestry project over Christmas break. Your job is to research the history of your family and give a report on it when we come back from vacation."

Jamie moaned along with his peers. Homework over break? What kind of society was this? Chances were good that it would cut into his free time hanging out with Jack and his other friends.

The bell rang just then and the twelve-year-old sighed, grabbed his bag, and headed out the door. He needed to pick up Sophie from the elementary school and walk her home, and then he was free for the weekend. She probably wouldn't have homework over break. Man, Sophie had it easy. He'd love to be back in second grade if it meant a lighter work load. Jamie shuddered to think of what high school would be like.

Jeez, he couldn't wait to see Jack again. Jack was around high school age (physically, at least) and didn't have to do any of this dull and boring stuff. He could do whatever he wanted, really. Jamie was jealous of that.

Sophie was waiting for him alone by the gates to her school. The eight-year-old skipped up to her brother and took his hand, asking excitedly, "Is Jack here yet?"

"No, not yet," Jamie answered. "He will be soon, though."

"We're gonna get to play a lot, right?"

Jamie nodded and smiled at his sister. "Right. It'll be great."

**xXx**

It was late when Jack arrived in Burgess, but he was still pretty satisfied with his timing. Sure, it was too late to hang out with Jamie and Sophie tonight, as they would probably already be in bed at this point, but they would be able to start early in the morning tomorrow and go through the whole weekend. Then there were only three days more of school until their winter break.

Jack understood the concept and importance of school, but that didn't mean he had to like it. It was hard not to feel lonely when he was unable to spend time with his believers. It brought up bad memories of his three hundred years alone. It was funny how a few days apart from his favorite kids could make him feel that way.

He dropped down into the forest near his pond, settling down on one of the upper branches of a tree. Jack figured he might as well sleep a little bit if he didn't have anything to do until morning. He leaned back and closed his eyes, eventually dropping off.

He didn't know how long he slept, but in the middle of the night he felt something poking him in the side. Jack cracked his eyes open and the minute he did, he nearly had a heart attack.

He was staring into the most nightmarish face he had ever seen.

**A/N:**

**This is the very weak first chapter of what will eventually be a family story. Very much a family story. So much family, you have no idea. No pairings, though. **

**...It'll get better, I promise.**

**Thank you for reading and please review.**


	2. Chapter 2

Jack yelped in surprise and nearly fell off his branch. The woman cackled wickedly and thankfully backed off, hovering a few yards away in the open air. Correcting his balance, Jack sat up and positioned his staff defensively before looking up at his assailant to find out exactly who it was. The dim moonlight made it difficult, but he was able to make out her individual features.

She was an emaciated woman who appeared to be around her sixties, with scraggly, grey-streaked black hair and a rotting smile. Her skin was deathly pale and warty in several places, and her squinted eyes were colorless and sunken. She looked more like a medieval skeleton than anything, given how she was dressed in a tattered gown from ages past. The woman clearly wasn't human due to the way she rode the air as easily as Jack himself could.

"I found you!" she laughed again in a cracking voice. "Remember me, little one?"

With a sinking feeling of dread in his stomach, Jack realized he did remember her. And he was not thrilled about seeing this woman again.

"Sure," he said, trying to keep his voice from shaking as he tightened his grip on his staff. This was _not _good. "You're Eve, aren't you?"

Eve's smile broadened. "I did not know we had been properly introduced."

"We hadn't," Jack replied shortly. "One just tends to pick up certain information during three hundred years. You're Eve, the spirit of autumn and Halloween, and you are absolutely crazy."

That last bit had slipped out accidentally, and Jack inwardly smacked himself. Hadn't he learned his lesson about pissing this woman off? Eve was off her rocker, all the immortals knew that, and everyone tried to stay out of her way. Even Jack, who had had very limited contact with the other immortals in the past, understood that much. Especially after his first encounter with her, which he had very much hoped would be the last.

In short, Eve was a witch, and a very unbalanced one at that. All the immortal entities had their own individual powers but it was Eve, as the denizen of Halloween, who had the widest variety, but wouldn't be so bad if she had total control of her mind and didn't adhere to pretty much every witch stereotype ever. Nobody fully knew what was wrong with her, or why the Man in the Moon had chosen such a woman to be a spirit of a season and even given her own holiday. Getting on Eve's bad side was a terrible idea.

So of course Jack had managed to do it.

And now here she was, having caught up with him at last.

Unnervingly, Eve didn't get angry at him in the slightest for the 'crazy' comment. On the contrary, she giggled like a schoolgirl and clasped her gnarled hands together in glee.

"I am flattered you remember me! So you know what I am here for?" Her cloudy eyes glinted in barely-hidden malice, and Jack picked up on that instantly. He knew. She was here about that one blizzard.

Which totally hadn't been his fault, by the way.

He swallowed nervously, "No, actually, I don't. I thought we buried the hatchet a long time ago. Eve, it's been like two hundred and fifty years since that happened, how can you still be upset about it?" He figured it was a good idea to not bring up Eve's many memory issues and instead speak to her as though she were sane.

Evidently, Eve didn't appreciate the effort. The wind around her gusted furiously and she snapped, "Of course I am still upset about it! A blizzard on _my_ holiday?" She laughed humorlessly. "Who do you think you are?"

"Well..." Jack began to edge away from her, preparing to take off into the sky and outrun the woman. He'd managed it last time, and it seemed that once he was out of her sight she completely forgot about him for two and a half centuries. Hopefully the same thing would happen again. "Well, in my defense, I didn't really know what I was doing. I was only fifty years old at the time, you know, and couldn't control my power very well. It was kind of an accident... A total accident, actually. And I apologized!"

"Not enough," Eve hissed, once again moving uncomfortably close to him. Jack pressed his back against the tree, trying not to gag as the rancid stench of her breath assaulted his senses. "I have not forgiven you. You need to pay what is due." She paused in thought, and then her face twisted into the most nightmarish grin Jack had ever seen. "I know what I shall do. You will not be able to cause any blizzards on my holiday anymore."

"You realize it's almost Christmas and not Halloween, right?" Jack deadpanned, and immediately reprimanded himself. Of course she didn't realize that, she was nuts. Which really wasn't helping his situation any, but still.

Eve muttered something under her breath in a language Jack didn't understand, and realizing what she was trying to pull—some kind of bizarre spell-casting—he lashed out with his staff and sent a blast of ice in her direction. The winds surrounding Eve picked up and the ice dissolved into nothing. Before Jack could react, the witch's winds knocked his staff out of his hands, sending it plummeting to the ground. He hollered and turned to jump after it, but to his horror Jack found himself frozen in place.

What was she _doing?!_

Eve leaned forward and breathed in his ear, "No more blizzards."

With a final burst of energy, a blinding light lit up the clearing and searing pain tore through Jack's body. He let out a tortured yell and didn't realize he had slipped off his branch and had fallen before his body hit the ground heavily. His vision swam and he could barely make out Eve's devious laughter around the pounding in his head. He struggled to breath, gasping for air being made difficult by the stabbing pain in his ribs. All his energy had left him.

Jack didn't know how long he laid there trying to get ahold of his senses, but as soon as the pain receded enough for him to move he began the search for his staff. The wind appeared to have blown it to the middle of his pond, and Jack made his way over to the center, taking care not to crack it. He was vulnerable without his staff, and it would be easy to fall in.

With a sigh of relief, he retrieved his staff and leaned on it, using it to support his weight. His head dropped down, and in the moonlight, Jack hazily got a look at his reflection in the ice. When he saw it, he gasped sharply and nearly collapsed, shock coursing through his body as he stared down at the image.

A boy with brown hair and brown eyes stared back at him.

**A/N:**

**I got a laptop for Christmas~! It's so beautiful. This chapter is the first thing I ever wrote on it, actually. It's hard getting used to a smaller keyboard; the family laptop is a bit bigger than mine. I made so many mistakes trying to adjust, but I'll get used to it eventually!**

**Anyway, thanks for the favorites and follows, especially in such a sort amount of time! I really appreciate them. (The self-promotion on Snowflakes probably helped. I'll likely utilize that again in the future.)**

**I'm going to reply to reviews down here from now on because I am too lazy to reply to them all individually and privately.**

**BobaAddict: This, ladies and gents, is the author of one of the best humanized-Jack stories out there. I highly suggest reading hers if you don't want to waste your time on my swill. *cough* ANYWAY. I'm glad you think so :D **

**Q-A the Authoress: I actually have to write a biographical essay on Abraham Lincoln over break. My American History teacher clearly dislikes us. Luckily I like to study random things in my free time and already know pretty much every detail about Mr. Lincoln, so I picked a good topic here. Still, though. **_**Homework.**_

**Novanto: Why did that make me laugh so hard?**

**Myaerdna: That was a very, very nice review and one of the reasons I'm trying to update as quickly as I can. Motivation!**

**Thanks to otaco, winter's-lion, QuillOwl, Silverblueroses, RandomKrazyPerson, LightMyBulb, Nutella0Mutt, NightFury812, Ms. Agnes, SerenePhenix, and megadracosaurus.**


	3. Chapter 3

The worst thing was how easily Eve had done it. Jack prided himself on his fighting ability; three hundred years yielded a lot of time for martial arts practice, and he had his ice magic down to a second-nature science at this point. He had defended himself for centuries and had taken down Pitch Black with those abilities. And yet, the insane autumn witch managed to catch him off guard and steal his power from him with a few short, simple words.

A wave of emotions crashed through Jack as he stared down at the brown haired, brown eyed reflection in the ice. Anger, shock, disbelief, a burning humiliation, and fear. Especially fear. It hit him for the first time that, at the moment, he was nothing but a defenseless human. The realization that now he couldn't use his magic and had no way of contacting the other Guardians hit him like a brick wall.

What was he going to do?

_Well first,_ Jack told himself, taking a deep breath, _you're not going to panic._ _Panicking will get you nowhere. Just think about the situation first._

He arranged himself in a cross-legged position and dropped his head into his hands with his staff lying across his lap, trying to get ahold of himself. Okay, he just had to carefully consider everything. He could decide what to do after he got his thoughts in order.

Right. For starters, Jack was a human. The hair, eyes, and the fact that he was suddenly vulnerable to the cold proved that well enough. He suppressed a violent shiver and moved on to the next topic. Second, he was powerless. His fingers curled around the aged wood of his staff, but the frost patterns that usually decorated it were missing, the wood dull and lifeless. He couldn't use his magic, and without that he couldn't utilize the wind either. Which meant he was stuck in Burgess until his powers returned. Assuming they would return, of course. Jack had to cling to the hope that they would. One thing he knew about Eve was that her spells were rarely permanent; her mind was too scattered to keep up the effect for long. Hopefully the same would go for this one.

_How_ long was the question, however. Just how long would Jack be stuck as a human? A few hours? Days? Months? He couldn't be like this for months! He actually did have a job to do, and despite what others (Bunnymund, for example) might say, he did take his job as the winter spirit and Guardian of Fun quite seriously. As a human he wouldn't be able to perform his duties.

Jack glanced up at the moon. "Do you have _anything_ for me here?"

Silence. As usual. Jack sighed heavily and flopped backwards onto the snow. He shouldn't feel resentment for the Man in the Moon. He knew now that the deity only ever had the best of intentions, and Jack knew he would never be abandoned by him. He took comfort in the thought that MiM wouldn't just leave him as a powerless human. No, if things got really bad, he needed to have faith that MiM would step in when needed.

For the first time, he really felt the cold, and was surprised at the discomfort. Being on his own like this would be difficult for sure, but wasn't like he could contact the others and get help. So what now? Jack hummed in concentration. It was almost Christmas. Maybe he could stick it out until then, and then intercept North as he made his rounds through Burgess on Christmas Eve. He hated to bother the large Russian on his busiest night of the year, but what else could he do?

He stared up at the starry sky, feeling a sort of dull hopelessness. After staying in that position for a while, trying to block the biting cold and ease the apprehension in his stomach, Jack drifted off into an uneasy sleep filled with dreams of skeletal women and the distant sounds of cracking ice.

**xXx**

Jamie and Sophie woke up very early the next morning, as they were too excited to have slept much the previous night. Without even waiting for their mother to make breakfast, they bundled up in their winter gear and dashed outside. They expected Jack to already be outside setting up sledding hills and terrain for snowball fights, and were surprised when they didn't see him floating about with his staff and a cheerful greeting.

Sophie tugged on her brother's sleeve. "Where's Jack? Shouldn't he be here?"

Jamie nodded. "Yeah… I'm sure he is. Maybe he's hanging around here somewhere." He frowned, thinking. Where did Jack stay when he wasn't playing with them? Did he even sleep? "He's usually at the pond in the woods, right? Let's go look for him there."

The little girl let out a huff of breath, blowing her blonde bangs upward. They pointlessly fell back over her right eye. "'Kay. Let's go."

The two trekked several blocks down to where the street ended in a dirt path, and headed into the woods. The pond was a ways in, and one had to venture off the path to find it. Despite that, the clearing was a popular shortcut area for kids who lived on the other side and needed to get to school. Jamie and Sophie used it themselves, and so were well-acquainted with the area. They stood at the edge of the clearing, shading their eyes and looking around. At first glance there didn't appear to be any other people around—Jack included, to their disappointment—until Sophie shook Jamie's arm and said, "Hey, what's that?"

Jamie looked in the direction she was pointing and raised his eyebrows. Someone was sleeping in a mound of snow in the center of the pond. Normally Jamie would just let hobos be, but that really didn't seem very safe, what with the cold and all. So, ignoring Sophie's whispered protests, he carefully stepped onto the ice and slowly made his way over to the sleeping figure. They were lightly dusted with snow, hiding any features that he could make out. The boy bent over the figure and shook their shoulder.

"Hey, are you alright? You shouldn't sleep out here in the snow, you know."

The figure didn't even stir, let alone give any indication that they had heard.

Jamie very sincerely hoped they weren't dead.

"Jamie, come on!" Sophie called out over the ice. "Jack's not here so let's go look somewhere else, okay?"

He bit his lip. "But if we leave them here they could get sick or something."

His sister groaned. "Hurry up, please. It's really cold out here."

"Just hang in there, Soph." Jamie inhaled deeply and shook the person harder. "Please wake up. I don't want you to die or already be dead or anything…" He reached out and brushed the dusting of snow off the person's pale face and body. They were a surprisingly young-looking teenaged guy, skinny, with messy brown hair and a blue hoodie.

Wait.

Jamie noticed for the first time the hooked end of a long stick poking out of the snow next to the boy and his mouth fell open.

"Oh, no way…"

"Jamie, what's wrong?" Sophie asked. Jamie waved her forward.

"Sophie, come here! I need you!"

Noticing her brother's urgent tone of voice, the little girl wasted no time in scampering over the ice and kneeling down next to him. "What's wrong?" she repeated.

Still gaping, Jamie gestured to the boy in front of them. "This is Jack!"

Sophie frowned. "No it isn't. Jack has white hair."

"Look harder! He's wearing the same clothes and has the staff, and the face is the same too. I'm pretty sure this is Jack."

Sophie's jaw dropped as well. "Oh." She looked up at Jamie with panicked green eyes. "What do we do? Why isn't he waking up?"

Jamie pulled off his hat and ran a hand through his hair. Jack's face was flushed red and burned with heat when Jamie touched it. That was definitely wrong; Jack was always so cold. It wasn't right for him to be hot.

"I don't know what to do," Jamie said softly. It was obvious that Jack was in trouble, but Jamie was only twelve years old. He wanted to help but this was way beyond anything he had ever encountered. Whenever bad things happened, Jack was always the one to take care of it and help them. Jamie had no idea what to when the roles were reversed.

"We should go get Mama," Sophie said. "Mama will know what to do."

"What?" Jamie blinked at his sister in surprise. "But Mom won't be able to see him. How could she help?"

Sophie pouted and mumbled, "Do you have a better idea? Jack looks different; I bet other stuff about him is different too. We just gotta try it."

Jamie fell silent. Sophie did have a point; there was a good chance that Jack was now visible if other things about him had changed as well. He still had no idea what had happened to the winter spirit, but he needed help that the two siblings couldn't provide on their own. Besides, their mother was the only adult they could trust with something like this. They had to try, for their friend.

"Alright," he said. "Let's go find Mom."

**A/N:**

**I'm hammering out these chapters like nobody's business. I'm trying to keep ahead of my updating schedule. By doing so I'm trying to update at least every other day. Doing my best.**

**Myaerdna: Dude, that's kind of what I was thinking when I created her. The witch in Brave didn't seem really malevolent though, just crazy. In terms of appearance though that is kind of what Eve looks like, just with black hair. Like a cross between the Brave witch and Gothel from Tangled.**

**Citrine Griffin: That's kinda the plan, actually :D**

**rainydayluver: Pfft, it's a five hundred word essay on a topic I already know really well. I can have my homework done in fifteen minutes. **

**bedstories: I haven't seen Beauty and the Beast in forever. And hey, that's a good explanation for why Eve is the way she is! Her brain got fried when she was turned into a spirit. There we go.**

**RandomKrazyPerson: That's right, Jack has no powers. And the fic is called Powerless Guardian.**

**Serendipital: Still brainstorming on that. We'll just have to see what happens.**

**DoomCabbit: *climbs out of mountains of OC fics* I made her a crone because there are so many cute-teenager Halloween spirits in these archives and I was tired of seeing them, honestly. In my opinion the Spirit of Halloween should be something that's truly frightening, and I dunno, if I saw Eve I'd be pretty freaked out. **

**Thanks to megadracosaurus, Allison, Dragowolf, NightFury812, Camelot Emrys, all-star102938, XD, otaco, Q-A the Authoress, cartoonsAREepic, and khoathkeeper13.**

**Thank you for reading and please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

If there was one thing Susan Bennett prided herself on, it was her parenting abilities. Indeed, her son and daughter were two of the best-behaved children in their neighborhood. Jamie and Sophie, despite being four years apart, were thicker than thieves. They watched all the same shows, read the same books, kept the same company. They had all the same friends, which Susan thought was amazing considering the age difference, and were very open and accepting of others. They may be picked on a bit more often than other children, but that didn't damper their enthusiasm in the slightest. They did everything together. Susan was immensely proud of her children and would do anything for them. If they needed help, she would be at their side in an instant, and she had gotten very good at telling when Jamie and Sophie were in trouble without them needing to say anything.

But today, when they had come frantically running into the house with red faces and shortness of breath, Susan hadn't needed to interpret anything at all. In fact, the two were tripping over each other trying to get the words out.

Susan raised her hands, "Calm down, calm down! Take a deep breath and tell me what happened."

Jamie inhaled then said in a rush, "There's a person and he needs help and the only person we can think of is you so—"

"Calm down again!" Susan instructed, noticing him getting worked up once more. "A person? Who? What's wrong with them?"

Her children fidgeted nervously. "It's a boy," Jamie said slowly. "Like a teenager. We don't know him but he's passed out in the middle of the pond in the woods, and he feels really hot and won't wake up."

"He looks kinda homeless," Sophie chipped in bluntly. Her brother gave her an incredulous look, and then nodded in agreement after a moment.

Susan frowned. This sounded serious. It wasn't often her children were so worked up, so it was highly doubtful they were making this up as a joke. They weren't those types of kids, anyway. She straightened up, grabbed her winter jacket off the coat rack next to the door, and said, "Show me."

They wasted no time in grabbing her hands and pulling her outside. Susan couldn't keep track of all the times she nearly tripped, they were going so fast. Jamie and Sophie led her down the street and onto the path through the woods, turning sharply in the direction of the pond.

They stopped suddenly at the edge of the ice and Jamie pointed ahead. "Out there."

Susan shielded her eyes against the glare of the sun on the snow and looked to where her son was pointing. Sure enough, lying perfectly still in the middle of the pond, half-buried in snow, was the distinct shape of a person. Susan frowned and made her way over to him, taking care to step slowly on the ice. She knelt down next to the person and found Jamie and Sophie were right: this boy was only a teenager.

She lightly touched her fingers to his forehead and her frown deepened when she felt the heat radiating off his skin. It was no wonder he wasn't waking up, really. How could anyone sleep through such a high fever? Well, they definitely couldn't just leave him here, and calling an ambulance was likely out of the question. The large trucks wouldn't be able to make it out here in the woods. Susan was a registered nurse and worked at the hospital, so she figured she'd be able to handle this sort of thing herself.

"Jamie, Sophie, come here and help me," she called to her children. "We're taking him home."

She didn't hear the sighs of relief from the two siblings as she grabbed one of the boy's arms and draped it over her shoulder, pulling him into a sitting position. Jamie kneeled down next to her, "Is he gonna be okay?"

"It's just a fever," she told him. "I'm sure he'll be fine. But right now we have to get him out of the cold."

"Right." Jamie glanced around, and to Susan's surprise he pulled a long, hooked stick out of the ground. She raised her eyebrows.

"What are you doing?"

"I think this belongs to him," he answered. "I thought maybe we should bring it."

Susan sighed. "Alright, if you insist. Let your sister carry it and help me with him."

"Okay."

**xXx**

The first thing Jack noticed when he began to come to was that it was hot. Almost unbearably so, but not quite, which made no sense because normally he was very uncomfortable with any type of heat. Besides how hot it was, there was soreness in his throat, a pounding in his head, and his entire body ached. Definitely the way he wanted to wake up. He was laying in something soft, something that was too warm to be a snowbank. Where was he? What had happened to make him feel this way?

His eyelids were heavy and felt like sandpaper, but he forced them open to get a good look at his surroundings. It was a bedroom that seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't remember when he had been there or where exactly it was. He noted with relief that his staff was leaning against the wall next to the bed he was in. Across from the bed was a bureau with a mirror, and Jack bit back a yell of shock when he caught sight of his reflection. The memories of the previous night came rushing back and he dropped his head into his hands.

"Agh…" he groaned. "I was hoping it had just been a bad dream…"

No such luck, apparently. Jack eased his aching body out of bed and made his way over to the mirror for a better look. The reflection staring back at him made his breath stutter in his throat. How long had it been since he had seen himself with tanned skin, chocolate brown hair and matching eyes? Over three hundred years. He didn't include when he had seen himself in his memories, that didn't count. Jack was so used to his ethereal appearance that this was something completely alien. The person in the mirror didn't look like him.

The creak of the door caught his attention and Jack turned to see a woman in her thirties with brown hair tied into a ponytail at the nape of her neck leaning against the frame.

"Oh, you're awake," she said, not unkindly.

Jack blinked. "You're…" He knew this woman. This was Susan Bennett, Jamie and Sophie's mother. Sure enough, the two children peeked around their mother and Jamie waved shyly. Jack smiled slightly in return.

"How are you feeling?" Susan asked.

He shrugged wearily. "Alright, I suppose."

The woman turned to her children, "Kids, go downstairs for a bit. I'd like to talk to him alone for a moment."

Jamie and Sophie gave Jack an apprehensive look before obeying their mother and disappearing down the hall. Susan stepped inside and shut the door gently behind her. "Would you like to sit down?"

Jack nodded wordlessly and moved to sit back on the bed. Susan pulled up the desk chair and sat facing him. She cleared her throat.

"Well, my name is Susan Bennett. It's nice to meet you, ah…"

"Jack," he replied. "Jack F…uh, Overland." He swallowed the lump in his throat. It sure had been a while since he had introduced himself like that, and he wasn't sure how he felt about it. It wasn't like he could tell her his real name, though. Jeez, everything was too confusing. "I'm Jack Overland."

"Nice to meet you, Jack," Susan smiled. "My children, Jamie and Sophie, found you passed out on the pond in the woods. It took a little effort but we managed to get you here, to our house. You've been asleep most of the morning with a pretty bad fever, but it looks like it's gone down a bit."

_Oh. So that's what happened._ Jack mentally reminded himself to praise the kids for their quick thinking later; they had to have been pretty confused and frightened when they found him unconscious and looking nothing like he normally did. Out loud he said, "I see. Thank you."

Susan eyed him with concern, taking in his thinness, bare feet, and tattered clothes. "Jack, may I ask how old you are?"

He coughed awkwardly. This was usually a question he tried to avoid answering when humans asked. In the end, Jack just decided to be as honest as he could. "Seventeen. Almost eighteen." Plus three hundred years, give or take, but she didn't need to know that.

Susan frowned to herself. He was so young, what was he doing on his own? Sophie sure wasn't kidding when she said the boy looked homeless, and Susan was really starting to suspect that was the case. Time to get into the awkward questions, then. "I'm sorry to bring this up so soon, but I have to ask what you were doing out there on your own. You're a minor, so why weren't you at home where you should have been?"

Jack paused for a long moment, chewing his lower lip as he thought about the question. Susan's heart sank because she figured she was going to get an unhappy answer, when in reality Jack was just having trouble thinking up a plausible lie. He didn't want to lie to her—he did like Susan and knew she was a good mother to his favorite kids—but it wasn't as though he could just blurt out, "Yeah hey, I'm Jack Frost, I'm the Spirit of Winter and over three hundred years old, as well as immortal. At least I used to be before the crazy witch of Halloween from Hell sucked my powers out. I'll get them back eventually so do you mind if I stay here for a while, and you wouldn't happen to have a magic snowglobe that I could use to teleport to the North Pole and gallivant around with Santa Clause, would you?"

He'd be surprised if she didn't ship him off to a mental hospital in an instant.

Jack took a deep breath and carefully thought out his answer before replying, "My parents, they...died a while ago." Alright, so we're good on telling the truth so far. "I figured I could take care of myself so I've been on my own for the past year or two." That was stretching it a little more.

Susan's eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her hand. "To be honest, I expected something like this but actually hearing it…" She sighed heavily, knowing her motherly instincts were not about to allow her to turn this poor boy back out onto the streets.

Well, what was one more person in the house, really?

"Jack," she said, "Would you be interested in staying here for a while?"

His mouth fell open and he raised his hands defensively. "Whoa, hold on, I can't say yes to that. I'm sure there's a money thing to consider and I don't have a job or anything and it'd just be some serious imposing on my part—"

"I'm the one who offered," Susan cut in smoothly. "My ex-husband and I divorced five years ago so it isn't as though I have to get his approval." She smiled gently. "I don't want you to be on your own. You're just a kid. And you don't have to worry about money. I work as a nurse and get child support from George, so it isn't a problem."

Jack gaped at her with a bewildered expression. "You don't even know me."

"That's true." Susan stood and smoothed a few wrinkles out of her blouse. She went to the door and opened it, then turned around and said, "But my children seem to like you. They were really worried when they found you and practically begged me to let you stay here when we got home. Honestly, that's good enough for me." She began to walk out of the room, closing the door behind her. "I'll let you rest a little more."

Jack picked his jaw up off the floor and flopped backwards onto the bed, head aching even worse than before. All things considered, he did pretty well for his first time talking to a human adult in three hundred years. He thought Susan was insane, but he was grateful that she had offered him a place to stay. It was with Jamie and Sophie, too. This was probably the best situation he could have found himself in, considering the circumstances.

As if on cue, the bedroom door creaked open once more and Jack turned his head dully to see Jamie and Sophie sneaking in.

"Hey guys," he said flatly. "Fancy seeing you here."

"You are Jack, right?" Jamie asked warily. Jack sat up and put his chin in his palm. He'd expected such a question somewhere down the line.

"Yep," he answered, and fingered a lock of his brown hair. "It's a long explanation."

The two children climbed onto the bed with him and sat facing the teenager.

"What happened?" Jamie asked wondrously.

Jack moved into a more comfortable position. "Alright, it's storytime then. For starters, you know how I'm the Winter Spirit?"

They nodded.

"Well, following that logic, it makes sense to assume that there are spirits for the other seasons as well, and there are. I haven't met Spring and Summer, because we tend to avoid each other due to our temperature differences, but I think they actually hang out together a lot. Anyway, I've me the Spirit of Autumn twice now." Jack shuddered involuntarily, but it felt good to finally be able to spill the whole, true story to someone. "Her name is Eve, and she wickedest old crone you'll ever see in your life. She's the denizen of Halloween, and as such is also a witch and pretty freaking crazy."

"So what?" Jamie frowned.

Sophie tilted her head to one side. "Did you make her mad?"

Jack's breath rushed out in a huff. "Yeah, I did. I made it snow on Halloween once, a long time ago. Let me make this perfectly clear, it was a total accident, and I expected Eve to just forgive and forget." He rubbed his eyes. "That's really not the person she is, though. She caught up to me last night and, well…"He spread his arms and indicated to his body. "I'm a human for the time being."

"That's terrible!" Jamie exclaimed. "How could she do that? Can't the other Guardians hunt her down for you or something?"

"That would be great, but I don't have any way to contact them." Jack shrugged. "I figured I'd hold out until Christmas and talk to North when he comes through here delivering presents." He caught Jamie's upset expression. "Hey, I think you're making a bigger deal out of this than I am. Don't worry about it, alright? I'll get back to normal eventually and until then, I'm staying here. That's good, right?"

"I guess so," the boy answered morosely. "It just doesn't seem fair."

"Life's not fair," Jack and Sophie said together.

Jack snorted. "You got it, Soph. Anyway Jamie, don't beat yourself up over it. I'm past the panic stage at this point, and now I'm just waiting for this whole thing to blow over. You should do the same, okay? And hey, we can hang out a lot now."

Jamie looked up and smiled slightly. "Yeah, that's true. Okay, I'll do what you say. I'm guessing we can't tell Mom about any of this?"

"You are correct." Jack yawned and stretched his arms. "Now that we've got that out of the way, do you guys have any food? I'm starving."

"Aren't you sick?"

Jack touched a hand to his forehead. "Doesn't feel so bad now. I've never been too good at staying sick. Immortal or human, I've always recovered from things pretty quickly."

"Oh. Um, okay then."

The three stood and headed out the door.

"By the way," Jack added offhandedly, "Your mom is a pretty nice lady."

Jamie and Sophie grinned. "We know."

**A/N:**

**WHY ARE THESE CHAPTERS SO LONG.**

**HOW AM I DOING THIS.**

**Does anyone know if Jamie's parents have canon names? Or are they just like Jack's sister?**

**One last thing. Would anybody be interested in drawing a cover art for this story? I just want Jack wearing his hoodie or normal clothes, with his brown hair and eyes. If nobody's interested I'll have to do it myself and uuuugh I don't have the energy for it right now.**

**all-star102938: No. Nooo. There will be no pairings in this story. I don't really ship Jack with anyone (aside from Marceline from Adventure Time, but let's not get into that) and quite frankly, I'm so insanely tired of seeing Jack/OC fics, thus I've never wanted to write one myself. So, nope. No falling in love for Jack, sadly.**

**NightFury812: R-Really?! *blush* Funny how this stuff works, your story is one of my favorites as well :O **

**Thoytsi: I love you. That is all. Love forever. **

**khoathkeeper13: Well, he's got a fever, so I'd say that's hilariously ironic as is :P**

**cartoonsAREepic: DON'T DIE, I'm updating as fast as I can! I will update just to keep you alive, dear reviewer!**

**QuillOwl: *cough* I think all my readers think I'm evil now—or at least chaotic neutral—because of the crap I pull on Snowflakes XD**

**Camelot Emrys: The Guardians will find out about this soon enough, don't worry. It'll probably take them a few days to notice, but I have an idea on what to do :D**

**bedstories: I'm like that too. That's why I try to publicly reply to as many reviews as I can, because I think it makes people feel good. I'm all about the feel-goods. **

**Thanks to Citrine Griffin, DoomCabbit, Q-A the Authoress, Alaia Skyhawk, The Dp Fangurl, Novanto, KarToon12, JuleBeilschmidt, megadracosaurus, Dragowolf, HarmonySoundown, OtakuAme, Myaerdna, Guest, and RandomKrazyPerson!**


	5. Chapter 5

When they got downstairs, Susan was sitting at the kitchen table writing down what looked like a shopping list. She looked up as they entered and smiled.

"You made friends already, huh?"

Jack grinned. "It honestly wasn't that hard."

"Mom, do we have anything to eat?" Jamie asked, scanning the kitchen cupboards. Susan capped her pen and stood, slipping the list into the pocket of her pants.

"I'm about to go shopping, actually, but I think there's some snacks in the fridge," she answered, and then turned to Jack. "You probably need other clothes, right? I imagine that's the only thing you have to wear." She gestured to his hoodie and three-hundred-year-old trousers, and Jack felt his face heat up. "You're pretty small, so that's likely the size you wear."

Jack fidgeted. "You don't have to go through so much trouble…"

"It's no trouble at all," Susan replied offhandedly. "I need to buy a lot of things anyway, since we're having a lot of company soon. A few clothing items won't make too much of a difference."

Jamie and Sophie perked up at the word company, the latter pulling a Popsicle out of the freezer and sticking it in her mouth.

"Company?" she asked, her voice muffled by the frozen treat, "Are people coming over, Mama?"

"Well, yes," Susan answered. "It's almost Christmas, remember? Our family always comes over to visit this time of year."

Jamie's eyes widened and Jack looked on in confusion. "Oh, that's right! I forgot!"

"Right." Susan turned to Jack, "I'm sorry to spring a whole bunch of people on you so suddenly, but it's just that time of year."

"No, no," Jack said defensively. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience."

She blew a strand of hair out of her face. "You can stop being so polite, Jack. It seems unnatural for you, for some reason, and I want you to be comfortable here. Just relax." With that, she turned on her heel, grabbed her jacket and car keys, and headed out the door, leaving two children who were looking up at a very bewildered Jack Frost with smug expressions. The three of them then retreated to the living room and lazily flopped down onto the sofa, Jamie grabbing the remote and switching on the television as he did so.

"So how big is your family, exactly?" Jack asked Jamie and Sophie after a long silence taken up by the blare of the television. Jamie had mentioned once that his family members usually came to visit over the holidays, but he'd never actually seen it. In the recent years since he had met the Bennetts and become a Guardian, he usually spent Christmas up at the North Pole with the others.

Jamie leaned back on the sofa, thinking. "Well, Mom has two brothers and a sister, and they're mostly married. She's in the middle, I think. Most of them have kids too, so my family's pretty big. Not counting Dad's side, because he lives in Vermont and we never see him."

"Hm. How many cousins?"

"Why?"

"Just curious. I'll probably end up meeting them all if I'm not back to normal before they come over. I just want to be prepared." Jack sighed. "To be honest, I'm not used to talking to a whole lot of people. I'm a bit worried about this."

Jamie blinked at him in surprise, feeling slightly guilty for reasons he couldn't explain. Jack had told him how long he had spent by himself; of course it made sense that he would be apprehensive about meeting so many people at once.

He cleared his throat, "Sorry Jack. There's just so many of them it's hard to remember sometimes."

The older boy glanced over and smiled. "Don't worry about it."

"I'll do my best." Jamie took a deep breath. "Okay, Mom's older brother is Uncle Jim, and his wife is Aunt Linda. Aunt Linda's kind of crazy." He frowned. "Well, maybe not crazy but…"

"Overbearing and insensitive," Sophie chipped in eloquently. Jack and Jamie stared at her for a moment before Jamie coughed and continued.

"Yeah, that's it. I don't think she really knows what she's saying half the time. Anyway, Uncle Jim's pretty nice. They have four kids. Chris, Amy, and David are teenagers and the last one, Chelsea, is my age."

"I like Chelsea," Sophie commented, sucking on her Popsicle. "She's quiet and nice."

"Like you, huh?" Jack ruffled her hair and she giggled. He turned back to Jamie, "What about the others?"

"Right. Umm, well after them are Mom's older sister Shannon and her husband Dan. I think they're the most normal people ever. Their oldest daughter is Brianna, and I don't like her much. She's one of those bratty girls who gets everything she wants."

"Kind of harsh stuff to say about your cousin, isn't it?" Jack replied mildly, though he knew how Jamie felt. He'd never particularly liked that kind of person, but didn't have much experience with them as he rarely spent much time around teenagers. Even as a human back in colonial Burgess there hadn't been a lot of teenagers around, so he'd spent most of his time around the younger kids.

Jamie and Sophie grimaced. "Maybe. But she's not that nice, trust us."

"Alright, I'll take your word for it. Any younger siblings on her side?"

"Yeah. Hunter is around Sophie's age—they don't really get along—and Addie and Gavin are really little, like four and two." Jamie let out a long breath. "After that there's just one more uncle by himself, then our grandparents. Our family is huge all by itself. We have two guest rooms and I still end up having to share my room with people."

"It sounds exhausting," Jack agreed, privately thinking of his own 'family'. He and the other Guardians were a pretty diverse group, but family they had become and they were, and he found himself missing them at the moment. Had they noticed there hadn't been any large blizzards anywhere in the world for the past day or so? Probably not. It usually took two or three days before they noticed he wasn't around and got worried. What would they do when they looked and couldn't find him? Alternatively, what if they did find him and he was still stuck as a human? In any case, if he wasn't back at Santoff Clausen by Christmas Eve, North and Tooth would definitely start to panic, Sandy would fidget around nervously, and Bunnymund would try to pretend he wasn't worried at all. Jack smirked as he imagined their reactions, but his amusement was hollow and laced with apprehension. He needed to get in contact with them, and soon.

Noticing the silence, Jack glanced over from Jamie, who was once again absorbed in the television, to Sophie, who appeared to be chewing on her tongue.

"Hey Soph, you've been pretty quiet all day," he told her. "Anything the matter?"

She shook her head, blonde tangles swinging around her face. "Nothing's the matter. Just this." She opened her mouth and pulled back her lower lip. Jack leaned forward for a better look, and saw that she was using her tongue to wiggle a tooth back and forth.

"You have a loose tooth," he said. Then it hit him and a wide grin spread across his face. "Sophie, you have a loose tooth!"

The two children looked confused.

"What's the big deal?" Jamie asked.

Jack jumped up excitedly. "This is perfect! Soph, when you lose that tooth we can wait for one of the fairies to come pick it up, tell her what happened to me, and she can go tell Tooth! Come on, try and lose it faster! Need any help?"

Sophie slapped her hands over her mouth. "No!"

"Come on, you can do it. It'll barely hurt."

"Nooo! I'll do it on my own! It's already really loose already!"

Jack sighed. "Alright. But can you please try soon?"

Sophie nodded and gave him a thumbs up. "I'll do my best!"

He returned the gesture. "Thanks, kiddo."

They all turned at the sound of the front door opening and Susan stepped in, laden down with bags from her shopping.

"I'm home!" she called out. "Anyone want to come help me with these?"

Jack and Jamie jumped to help the woman carry in her bags, and it took several trips out to the car to finally retrieve them all. Once they had brought all the bags in, Susan shoved two into Jack's arms and said, "These are for you. Go upstairs and try some of it on, alright?"

Jack reddened once more and mumbled in agreement before Jamie pushed him in the direction of the stairs. Jeez, Jack really was acting different. This human thing must have been more depressing than Jamie originally thought.

Or maybe he was far more awkward around adults than he let on.

**This one is cut off prematurely because I got lazy and needed to post it. Sorry…**

**Check out my totally unsubtle foreshadowing here, hehe.**

**…God, I thought I swore to myself never to write pointless filler.**

**Oh well, reply time!**

**karasu99: Oh God, no. I know exactly where you're coming from. There are so many Mary Sue fics in the RotG archives that it's difficult finding something actually worth reading. There will be original characters in this story because they are necessary, but I always take special measures to prevent Sues and there will be absolutely no romance. Not even any crushes.**

**Novanto: Oh thanks, I'm relieved to hear that.**

**QuillOwl: Of course there will be socializing! Hehehehe, I see Jack as being adorably socially awkward, and how could he not be after three hundred years of zero human contact? The 22, huh? I'll see if I can do anything with that. And thank you! I don't have any fancy internet things either so I feel your pain.**

**Thoytsi: Nah, he won't go to school. I don't have the energy for that, and I have the entire story planned out already. He would be pretty boss at history though, you're right.**

**Allison: …You alright there?**

**Camelot Emrys: Pippa is Jamie's female friend with the hat. People just got confused because she and Jack's sister share the same voice actress.**

**RedLicorice: The girl in my profile picture is Fionna from Adventure Time. I'm a big fan of that show.**

**Jack frost guardian: Hey, I'll take what I can get :D From the way it looks I'm actually gonna end up having to choose between peoples' art.**

**DoomCabbit: I'm pretty sure Mrs. Bennett being a nurse is just popular fan theory. I dunno, I just liked it and decided to use it.**

**bedstories: There are never enough feelz. Never. About the name George, I don't intend for him to actually show up, so it's just sort of a throwaway thing.**

**HarmonySoundown: I'm doing my best with the updates! These chapters are surprisingly easy and fun to write, so it's not that difficult.**

**Thanks to RandomKrazyPerson, Alaia Skyhawk, Citrine Griffin, OtakuAme, SkyHighFan, NightFury812, megadracosaurus, CelticGirl7, cartoonsAREepic, Dragowolf, azwolfe, and TheSihiro.**


	6. Chapter 6

"_Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Rosie insisted with a laugh, shaking Jack's shoulder to try and get her older brother out of bed. "You promised!"_

_Jack rolled over with a groan and cracked his eyes open. Sunlight was only dimly shining through the windows of the Overland house, proving the time to still be in the early hours of the morning. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, glancing over at his sister who was already fully dressed with ice skates slung over her shoulder._

"_You don't want to wait for it to actually get light outside?" he asked with a grin, ruffling the little girl's hair. Rosie giggled and bounced on her heels._

"_You said we would go ice skating today," she replied, feigning a disappointed pout._

"_Yes, well, it's not even day out," he said, stretching his arms. "Sorry little lady, but you'll have to wait a little longer. I don't think our parents are even awake yet, let alone out and about."_

"_Papa's up," Rosie said, dropping her skates and jumping on the bed with him. "He's out chopping wood, I think. Come on Jack, you promised!"_

_He frowned. "Hey, if there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I always keep my promises. Don't worry; we'll get out today and you'll be taught how to skate just fine. But for right now…" Jack yawned loudly and flopped backwards onto the bed. "It's too early. I'm going back to sleep, and you can't lie and tell me you aren't still a little sleepy too."_

_Rosie sighed dramatically but lay down as well, nestling into the crook of Jack's arm. "Soon as the sun comes up, okay?'_

"_You got it," Jack smiled and absently stroked her hair. "Trust me."_

**xXx**

Jack bolted upright in bed, a cold chill running down his spine. He shivered and rubbed his arms, looking towards the window. It was wide open, which made no sense as he had made sure it was closed before he went to sleep. He still wasn't used to feeling uncomfortable when it came to cold.

He climbed out of bed and moved to close the window, then turned to check the clock on the nightstand. It was six-forty-seven in the morning. Jack sighed and sat back down, lost in his own thoughts. It was likely the cold that had woken him up, but the memory of the dream was still fresh in his mind. It had seemed more like a memory than a dream; it reminded him of the first time he had seen his memories after being trapped in the Antarctic ravine by Pitch.

Why was he dreaming of his memories? He certainly hadn't done so before, even during the months following Pitch's demise.

Jack ran a hand through his hair and said aloud, "This human stuff is messing with my head. I'm a human right now, so maybe that's what's triggering the memories."

_Great. Now I'm talking to myself, just like I have for three hundred years. _He sighed. _Force of habit, I guess._

Figuring he was not going to get any more sleep, Jack decided to get dressed and head downstairs. He could hear Susan moving around already. She sure was an early riser.

She had bought him enough clothes to last a week without need for laundry, which Jack was grateful for. If he was going to be here for a while then he ought to try and blend in. As uncomfortable as it was being out of his normal clothes (he had been wearing those trousers his entire immortal life, and the hoodie for the past fifty years or so) Jack knew it was the necessary thing to do.

The clothes he now possessed were fairly plain, but then again, Jack liked them that way. He dressed in a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt. After a moment's debate, he pulled his regular blue hoodie on as well. It seemed older and more worn than usual, likely due to the absence of the frost patterns usually woven into the fabric. There were socks and shoes as well and Jack hesitated before them, not having actually worn anything like them before. Jack swallowed his uncertainly and laced the sneakers up, ignoring the discomfort that came with being unable to move his toes freely.

Susan was in the middle of reading the newspaper when he arrived downstairs, and she glanced up in surprise when he entered the kitchen.

"You're awake early," she commented. "How are you feeling?"

"Alright," he answered, "Just a little warm."

She nodded. "Good. I'm surprised the fever went down so quickly, but it's a good thing. You should probably avoid going outside though; the cold won't do anything good for you."

_Apparently not,_ Jack thought dryly, thinking back to his awakening that morning. He opened his mouth to respond to Susan, but was cut off by a shrill screech ringing through the house. A few moments and a shared heart attack between Jack and Susan later, Sophie came running down the stairs, mouth dripping blood. Despite the morbidity of the sight, she was grinning broadly and holding something small in her hand.

"What's the matter?" her mother demanded, concerned.

Sophie bounced up and down. "My tooth came out!"

**xXx**

"I have been waiting all day for this," Jack whispered as he and Jamie crept into Sophie's room that night with the intention of waiting for the fairies to come and take her tooth. The little girl was sitting up in bed waiting for them, and squirmed excitedly when the door clicked shut.

"Are we gonna see the Tooth Fairy tonight?" she asked.

Jack shook his head. "Not Tooth herself, but one of her little helpers. If things to according to plan we'll see her in person later."

He and Jamie sat down on the floor and Sophie tossed them some pillows. The three of them settle down and the room fell into a comfortable state of silence.

It was around one in the morning when he heard it. Sophie was fast asleep at this point and Jack and Jamie were nodding off themselves when soft, birdlike chirping echoed through the room. Jack's eyes flew open and he jumped up, hurrying to the bed. Jamie stirred and stood as well, stretching with a large yawn.

The fairy was just pushing herself out from under Sophie's pillow, tooth in hand, when Jack whispered, "Hey, wait please! I need to talk to you!"

The fairy frowned. The boy speaking was a teenager, and it was rare that teenagers were able to see her, let alone talk to her. She peeked over her shoulder and glanced at the boy with wide, mismatched eyes. He seemed vaguely familiar…

They recognized each other at the same moment.

"Baby Tooth!" Jack exclaimed, while Jamie blinked in confusion. "It's you!"

Baby Tooth gaped, nearly dropping the tooth she held. She rushed up to Jack and tugged a lock of his hair as if to say, _WHAT._

Jack scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, it's a long story… But it really is me. I'm Jack Frost."

Baby Tooth shrugged. She didn't know why he looked so different, but his word was good enough for her. She lowered herself and hugged Jack's face the best she could. He laughed lightly and affectionately stroked her head. "Yeah, I've missed you too, Baby."

Jamie was completely lost. Jack was acting like he was best friends with this little fairy; he'd never seen the older boy act like that, not even around him and Sophie. "Um…"

"Oh!" Jack grinned and turned to the boy and held the fairy out. "Jamie, this is Baby Tooth, the Tooth Fairy's best helper." She waved cheerily. "Remember her?"

"Nice to meet you," Jamie said uncertainly. "Sorry, I don't remember."

Jack shrugged. "Oh well." He looked up towards Baby Tooth. "Alright, I need to you do something for me. You up for it?"

Baby Tooth faced him and sprung into a salute, an adorably determined look on her tiny face.

"Great. I need you to go tell your mom about, well…" He gestured to his body. "_This._ Tell her that I had some trouble with Eve—she'll know who that is—and that I need to talk to her as soon as possible. Can you do that?"

Baby Tooth gave him a deadpan look, crossing her arms, and Jack immediately backtracked, "Of course you can do that, what am I talking about? Sorry for doubting you." He held out his fist. "You got this, Baby."

Baby Tooth grinned and bumped her own tiny fist against his, then waved and took off out the window faster than the two boys could blink.

"What just happened?" Jamie asked, bewildered.

Jack smiled satisfactorily and turned to exit the room. "I think I can actually relax now."

"Huh?"

The teenager looked over his shoulder and sent Jamie a sideways smirk, fighting the urge to start cheering on the spot.

"The Tooth Fairy's coming to visit soon."

**A/N:**

**How'd you guys like the dream at the beginning? There are going to be more of those, leading up to…well. That **_**one**_** scene. Before anyone gets confused, Jack's sister's name is NOT Pippa. Pippa is Jamie's tall redheaded female friend with the hat, the one that hit Cupcake with the snowball. She and Jack's sister have the same voice actress and that's where people got confused. The name I use for Jack's sister is, obviously, Rose/Rosie. **

**Tooth will make an appearance next chapter!**

**BobaAddict: Shaddup. You are not a loser. You are wonderful and so is your story. (**_***cough***_**youshouldupdate**_***cough***_**) And yes, Jack was about to rip Sophie's tooth out. Only if she let him though, and he intended to be gentle about it.**

**ShiverTwitch: No worries, there is going to be more Sophie! :D And I love family-oriented tales as well. I don't really like romance that much, hence why I am writing a story such as this!**

**Universal808: The assignment has not been forgotten! It will come into play later. Jamie's just been distracted what with all that's been going on. And I think he's like me when I was twelve. He puts off his homework to the last moment or when his mom starts to nag him about it. …Ah hell, I'm still like that.**

**azwolfe: I'm doing my best to update every day. So far I've done pretty well! Nah, I think Jack is past the panic stage at this point. He didn't freak out when Pitch broke his staff because he had just given up on everything. Before Baby Tooth unlocked his memories, there was just no hope. With being human here, he knows there is hope—looots of it—so he's not too worried about his future in the long run.**

**Thoytsi: You're reading my mind again, knock it off. How are you doing that from across the Atlantic Ocean?!**

**Novanto: The best part about that rant was that I understood exactly what you mean, because I love Horton Hears a Who and could barely find anything worth reading in that exact archive. Ugh, Mary Sue fics aren't a good thing regardless of which fandom they're in. It makes me sad that Rise of the Guardians is quickly becoming famous for the amount of them pouring in.**

**ThreadsToFeathers: That…is weird… I swear I don't know you. The relatives Shannon and Dan are named after my aunt and her boyfriend, and Gavin is a little cousin on mine. The other names I just came up with out of the blue.**

**HarmonySoundown: I imagine Jamie's mom to be in her thirties, with shoulder-length brown hair and brown eyes. Her body has a sort of huggable mom-roundness I guess, if that makes sense. We sort of get a glimpse of her in the movie when Jack's looking through the window at the beginning, but I don't really remember what we saw. **

**KarToon12: Thank you for bringing that up! I actually agonized over that topic before I decided to just…yeah, just go with it. Susan Bennett is one of those moms who are a very good judge of people who has that sixth sense that moms do. She knows instinctively that Jack is a good person, though she can't explain how she knows that, and senses that something bigger is up with him but doesn't want to push it because she assumes it's about his family. And when it comes down to it, I think she trusts her own children to know what to do in times of trouble. Does that make sense? It's kind of hard to explain :/ I'll probably bring this up in a later chapter, actually.**

**Thanks to kazune1988, Dragowolf, PuppetMaster55, RandomKrazyPerson, daughterofthehunt, SevendeadlySins89, CelticGirl7, OtakuAme, AnimeYaoiFangirl100, Camelot Emrys, Yami's Devil, myrddin767, NightFury812, Citrine Griffin, Allison, bedstories, QuillOwl, Forever Frozen, hkoathkeeper13, and Alaia Skyhawk!**


	7. Chapter 7

With everything that had been going on, Jamie and Sophie managed to completely forget that they still had two days of school left before Christmas break began. They would have overslept Monday morning if Susan hadn't realized what had happened, and the resulting mad scramble to get ready in time awoke Jack from another lucid memory-dream. It was chaos when he went downstairs.

"Jamie, Sophie, I can't walk you to school today so you'll have to go by yourselves," Susan instructed as she hurriedly scribbled down every emergency phone number she could think of despite Jack's insistence that he didn't need them.

Jamie, who was rushing to pack lunches for himself and his sister, said, "Mom, we walk home from school every day by ourselves. We'll be fine."

"Okay, okay. I have to get to work. You two get to school on time and you…" Susan gestured vaguely in Jack's direction, "You just stay put."

Jack just nodded and a satisfied Susan grabbed her things, kissed her children, and hurried out the door.

He turned to Jamie and Sophie, "So does she usually walk you to school?"

"Yeah," Jamie said around a mouthful of toast, shoving papers into his backpack. "The middle school and elementary school are right next to each other so it's easy to walk together. I pick up Sophie after school and Mom comes home around six."

"You want me to walk you?" Jack asked.

"Mom told you to stay in though," Sophie pointed out, pulling on her winter jacket.

"Yeah, well," Jack shrugged, "Let's just say I really want to get outside. It'll be therapeutic, or something. Your mom can't have a problem with that."

"Okay, well, we have to go," Jamie pointed out. He and Sophie grabbed their bags and the three of them headed out the door. They had to rush to school, only barely dropping Sophie off in time before hurrying off to the middle school.

"You want me to walk you home when you're done?" Jack asked Jamie, who shrugged offhandedly.

"Sure, if you want."

"Alright. I'll see you later."

**xXx**

Jamie sighed as the final bell of the day rang. How could he have forgotten about the project he was supposed to do? Mrs. McMahon had all but drilled the subject of the Texas revolution into their minds that day, and at the last moment had reminded them about the ancestry project. Jamie merely assumed that with everything that had been going on with Jack, he had forgotten everything else important. He rubbed his shoulders and stepped outside the school, scanning the area for the (ex-) winter spirit who had promised to pick him up.

...Speaking of Jack, where was he?

Jamie waited for ten minutes, but there was no sign of the older teen. Feeling slightly worried, he figured he'd better pick up Sophie and hurry home to see if anything had happened. He did so and the two made it home safely. Jamie quietly climbed the stairs to Jack's guest bedroom and cracked the door open.

Jack was sprawled on the bed, passed out and breathing heavily. He looked more exhausted than ever before and looked as though he wasn't resting well, and any irritation Jamie might have for making him worry felt was immediately washed away and replaced with concern. The best thing to do was to let him sleep, right? That thought in mind, he eased the door shut and silently crept back downstairs.

**xXx**

"_Be careful!" Mrs. Overland called after her two children as they trudged away from the house through the snow, ice skates slung over their shoulders. Jack looked back over his shoulder._

"_We will!"_

_Within a few moments, the siblings had disappeared from their mother's sight._

"_Slow down!" Jack laughed at his sister. "There's snow everywhere, I can only go so fast!"_

"_I'm smaller than you, yet going faster," Rosie teased, "so you don't have a very substantial excuse, do you?"_

"_Smaller things typically do go faster," Jack argued._

_His sister skipped further ahead of him, waving her skates in the air. "I'm going to get to the pond before you, slowpoke!"_

_"You think so, huh?"_

_"I know so!"_

_Jack grinned and picked up his pace, moving to chase after Rosie. "Prove it!"_

_With a squeal of laughter, Rosie broke into a sprint, brown hair flying behind her. Jack took off running, catching up, seizing her around the waist, and slinging her over his shoulder. "See? I told you!"_

_Rosie squirmed in his arms, all but crying with laughter. She looked down at him with eyes swimming in adoration._

_"I love you."_

_Jack tripped over a tree root in surprise. He managed to right himself and swept Rosie into a bridal carry. "I love you too, little lady. Now, there's the pond. What do you say we finally get these skating lessons out of way?"_

**xXx**

Something was prodding him in the side again. Jack was somewhat reluctant to open his eyes to see what it was, considering what had happened the last time it had happened. But the poking continued, gaining intensity, and eventually he was too irritated to ignore it any longer.

Jack felt a rush of relief when he found himself staring straight into Tooth's amethyst eyes.

He sat up and rubbed his own. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you."

The fairy was staring at him with an expression crossed between worry and disbelief. She covered her mouth with her hand. "It's just as Baby Tooth said," she said softly, blinking back tears. Jack hurried to comfort her; he really did not like seeing Tooth upset.

"Hey, don't worry too much about it." He forced a grin. "It's really not that bad."

Tooth frowned. "Please don't lie to me, Jack. You can't pretend this doesn't bother you so little. I'd prefer it if you were honest. If _I'm_ being honest, you look terrible."

Jack blinked at her in surprise, then smiled a little sadly. "Nothing gets past you, huh?" He sighed heavily and slumped back on the bed, running his hands through his hair. Tooth fluttered down to sit next to him, gently rubbing his thin shoulder.

"Jack, I've known you for four years. I think I can tell when something's wrong at this point. Can you tell me everything that happened?"

Jack nodded and took a deep breath. "It was Eve. You know Eve, right?"

"Yes, but why would she do this?"

"A blizzard. When I was still getting used to my powers a long time ago, I accidentally created a pretty bad storm on Halloween. She…didn't like that much at all. I got away from her then and took off, and never saw her again before a few days ago." He chuckled humorlessly. "Eve really doesn't let anything go."

"That is ridiculous," Tooth said, and Jack was surprised at how incensed she sounded. Her small fists trembled with suppressed anger. "It's been a very long time since then, hasn't it? Why would she hold onto a grudge for so long, and especially for something that wasn't even your fault?"

Jack shrugged. "You know how she is. More specifically, you know how her mind is."

"Yes, but—"

"Tooth, really, _why_ Eve did it isn't the problem. The problem is that she did do it, and I'm stuck with the consequences."

Tooth visibly deflated at the hopeless tone of Jack's voice. He really did look terrible, with dark shadows under his eyes and a sort of defeated air about him. She draped one feathery arm over his shoulders. "This is a much bigger deal to you than you let on, isn't it?"

"Well…" Jack sighed again. At this point in his relationship with the other Guardians he had long since learned to stop hiding when he was in pain and accept help; lying to Tooth would do him no good. Besides, he really did want talk about it. Leave it to Tooth to come flying in with a purpose and immediately drop everything to comfort him.

Well, he needed that right now.

"Yes," he admitted quietly. "I'm supposed to be the Spirit of Winter, and a Guardian. We're in the middle of winter right now; I'm supposed to be out _doing_ something and not sitting around here with no purpose. Flying around, freezing things, making it snow everywhere. That's who I am, and I spent three hundred years figuring that out. If that's taken away…" He looked up at Tooth with an anguished expression. "If that's taken away, who am I supposed to be?"

"You're you," Tooth replied simply without missing a beat. "You've never stopped being you. So what if you can't use your powers for a few days? It's not going to be like that forever. You're Jack Frost, and you always will be." She delicately fingered a lock of his brown hair. "Hm. This is really different, but I kind of like it. It suits you in a way."

Jack was quiet for a long moment, and she could barely hear him mumble, "Thanks Tooth."

"Of course." She gave him a caring smile and pulled him into a gentle one-armed hug. "Now, is anything else bothering you? You look like you haven't slept in days."

"I kind of haven't," Jack replied. "I don't know what this human thing is doing for sure, but it's messing with my head. I keep having these dreams every time I fall asleep…"

Tooth frowned. "Like nightmares?"

"No, like…like memories. Memories of when I was human the first time."

"I see." Tooth pondered the matter. "Well, as the Guardian of Memories, I certainly can look into it for you. And I'll talk to Sandy to see if he can stop the dreaming if it's bothering you that much."

An idea struck her and she gasped loudly, startling Jack. "I got it!"

"What?!"

"Your memories! I'll look through them, see exactly what Eve did to you that night, and find out if there's a way to reverse it. Hmm, I'll have to go through Eve's memories as well…" She fluttered into the air and began pacing, mumbling to herself.

"Uh, Tooth?" Jack waved to get her attention. "What exactly are you going on about? I thought you only had the memories of kids."

"I'm going to let you in on a trade secret," Tooth said absently, still pacing back and forth. "I'm the Guardian of Memories. My priority is first and foremost the children, but I also safeguard the memories of all the immortals as well. You, North, Sandy, Bunny, everyone. Even Eve." She looked to him with a bright, slightly unsettling grin. "I'm only really allowed to look at them as a very last resort, but I think this situation calls for a little bending of the rules. I'm sure MiM won't mind much." She pounded her fist into her palm. "I know exactly what to do. You just stay here and rest, alright?"

"A…Alright…" Jack said uncertainly. Tooth flew open to the window and pushed it open, turning back with a smile.

"Don't worry, okay? I'll tell North what happened and he'll come around on Christmas Eve, so you can talk to him then." She sent him a salute nearly identical to the one Baby Tooth had used the night prior. "We'll have you back to normal in no time, so just relax until then!"

Jack nodded slightly. "Alright," he said again. "I'll trust you, then."

"Good. I'm off!"

"Hey Tooth."

"Yes?"

"Please don't tell Bunny about this. I don't want him to make fun of me."

"You know he'll find out eventually," the fairy pointed out.

"Yeah," Jack agreed, "but when he does I want to be able to get back at him for any and all teasing he'll throw my way. As I am right now, I can't do that."

She snorted. "You two… fine, I won't tell him."

"…and Tooth?"

"Hm?"

"Really…thank you for coming."

Her expression softened. "What's family for, right?"

"Right." His lips quirked up in a tiny smile. She moved back towards him and hugged him full-on this time. When they pulled away, she patted his head like one would a small child and said, "You get some sleep. Everything will be fine."

Jack didn't answer and instead laid back down in bed. He was asleep within moments and Tooth took a second to carefully cover him up with a blanket. When he was like this, he looked so innocent and nothing like the mischievous trickster she was so familiar with. Tooth sighed and determinedly flew out the window. She was out to make this right.

**A/N:**

**I really love Mama Tooth Fairy. She's such a motherly figure it's like gaaah. And I totally don't ship FairyFrost at all, not even a teensy bit. Not. At. All. OKAY maybe I do, but that will definitely NOT be the focal point of this story. There MIGHT be just tiny hints here and there. **

**In fact, the main focal point is going to be dropped in a drama bomb next chapter. I'm pretty sure you've all accurately predicted what it'll be at this point. Sigh. All my efforts to be discreet were for naught…**

**GUYS**

**CAN I HAVE A COVER ART FROM YOU PLEASE**

**I WANT A SHINY NEW ONE**

**FOR THE NEW YEAR**

**HAPPY NEW YEAR BTW**

**I updated before midnight yeah suck it motherfuckers**

**(I'm sorry about taht, I'm really excited right now, there's lots of chocolate and caffeine in this house.)**

**Reply time!**

**Galaya: I'll do my best not to spoil a whole lot for you, if you haven't already spoiled the whole thing for yourself.**

**Camelot Emrys: Baby Tooth and Jack are totes best friends in my mind. Of course she would be the only one to recognize him! :D**

**bedstories: She sucked it up and ripped her own tooth out herself. Sophie's a tough little thing; I never had the courage to do that as a kid… *cough* We should stop talking about ripping teeth out…years of visits to the orthodontist have left me wanting to never discuss the machinations of a mouth again.**

**Thoytsi: Well I COULD, but it's just weird for me because Baby Tooth's so small. And I do what I want. If I want to scare you with little girls bleeding out the mouth, then dammit I will take a cue from The Woman in Black and do it.**

**all-star102938: It's still a while yet before Jack gets his powers back. We still have a whole lot of plot to plow through, haha.**

**ShunKazamis-Girl: I read it, but like I told you, reader inserts are really not my thing. I appreciate what you did, but I'm not likely to get into them any time soon. And I like both Jacks equally. Human or immortal, he's totally adorable either way.**

**Reid Phantom: The project is coming very, very soon, hehehe. DRAMA BOMB**

**Thanks to Novanto, myrddin767, EpicDetour9, Twinspired, RedLicorice, LiviahEternal, quietlykissingdeath, RandomKrazyPerson, Q-A the Authoress, candidus-lupus-full Moon, Allison, NightFury812, SkyHighFan, CelticGirl7, Dragowolf, Trevor Guinn, Mystery Girl Who Writes, azwolfe, Sympathy for the Lost Love, KarToon12, RainyDayinAstrasia, OctoberThirtyFirst, and megadracosaurus!**


	8. Chapter 8

After Tooth left, Jack didn't dream once. He wasn't sure why that was; there was no way she could have gotten to the Sandman and explained the situation so quickly and he'd gotten a nightmare every other time he'd fallen asleep since arriving at the Bennetts. Maybe it was because Tooth was just really, really good at comforting people.

When he woke up he got the feeling that he'd been asleep for a very long time, with a stiff body and dry mouth and throat to show for it. On the upside, he felt fully rested for the first time in days, and decided to make his way downstairs and see what the others were doing.

Jamie was lying on his stomach facing a laptop when Jack entered the living room. The younger boy was sprawled on the carpet surrounded by papers and books, and he seemed engrossed in whatever it was he was doing on the internet. He looked up and blinked a couple times to get himself oriented when he heard Jack come in.

"You're awake," he said, sounding mildly surprised.

Jack frowned. "You sound like that's a big deal. What time is it, exactly?"

"Four in the afternoon on Tuesday."

It took a moment for Jack to do the math and when he did, he stumbled back and yelped, "I was asleep for over twenty-four hours?!"

"I guess. Mom said it was kind of weird how tired you are all the time but it's good you're getting your energy back and that we shouldn't bother you." He gave Jack a scrutinizing look. "You do kind of look better now, too, so I guess she's right."

Jack whistled and sank down onto the carpet next to his friend. "Where are your mom and Sophie? And what are you doing?"

"Mom's still at work and Sophie went to a friend's house. I'm working on a project for school."

"Over break? That's terrible."

Jamie's head dropped onto the floor. "I know…"

Leaning forward curiously, Jack asked, "So what is it? What's so important you have to use your two weeks off do it?"

Letting out a huff of breath, Jamie turned the laptop to face Jack. "It's an ancestry project. I'm supposed to write a report on my relatives from a long time ago and present it when break is over. Mom has this website account so she's letting me use it on her laptop. And all this—" he gestured grandly to the books and papers scattered about, "is tons of different diaries, history books, and records from our family's history."

Jack hummed. "That sounds like a lot of work."

The boy shrugged. "It could be worse, I guess. According to this site my whole family's been in Burgess for like, ever. Since the town was founded. Which is good for me, because we don't have to go back further than three or four hundred years or so."

The last comment caught Jack's interest. "Oh, really? Three hundred years?" A slow smile spread across his face. "Hey, you need any help?"

"What?" Jamie's mouth fell open. "Why—uh, _can_ you help? I mean…"

"Jamie, how old am I?"

"…over three hundred?"

"And what is my hometown?"

"…oh."

"Yeah."

And that was how Jack and Jamie found themselves seated next to each other on the living room floor, Jamie scrolling through his web page and Jack rifling through papers, both surrounded by a large pile of books.

"Oh hey, I knew this person," Jack said with interest, examining an ancient birth certificate. "What's this doing in your house? I thought they left this town in 1723."

"I dunno, but apparently my great-something grandfather fought in the Civil War. That's cool, I can use that. What else…"

They fell into a comfortable silence broken only by the clicks of Jamie's fingers against the laptop keyboard. Jack skimmed through a crumbling medical journal, which turned out to be useless, so he set it aside and reached for another. Most of the books, Jamie told him, had been taken out of old trunks in the attic. Some of them dated back to colonial Burgess. Those were the ones that interested him, so he sought out a few and lay on his back, holding the book above his face.

It appeared to be a diary, one that belonged to a woman if the curlicue handwriting was anything to go by. Jack opened it towards the back and began to read. The date of the entry was December 14, 1731.

_William came home with a bouquet of roses for our anniversary today. I scolded him for spending his wages on such a thing, but he merely laughed and said, "The wife of William Bennett deserves only the best of everything!"_

Not being a large fan of romance, Jack grimaced and stopped reading right then. That was certainly enough information; he didn't need to hear about the rest of the loving couple's anniversary. Besides, he had gotten what he needed. He picked up another book to look through and said lazily, "Hey Jamie, look up William Bennett. That might be helpful."

"Okay." The sound of keys clicking filled the room once more, then stopped abruptly as Jamie began to read. "Oh, you're right. That was helpful. It says here that William Bennett's family came over from England in 1714, and he was around fourteen. They were in Boston for a while then came here to Burgess. Blah, blah, he grew up, got married to some lady named Rose Overland, they had kids—"

He was cut off by the sound of Jack's book falling and hitting the older boy in the face. Jamie laughed. "What was that?"

Jack didn't answer and shot into a sitting position, looking like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. "W-What did the site say?"

"About what?"

Jack grabbed Jamie's shoulders and stared at him with wide eyes. "About William Bennett and Rose Overland! What did it say?!" His voice pitched in desperation and Jamie could feel his hands shaking.

"It…it says they got married," he said cautiously, gauging Jack's reaction. The teen's hands slipped from his shoulders and he began pacing around, muttering to himself. Jamie could barely hear his agitated voice.

"…of course she would get married, what am I thinking? It's not like she would stop having a life after I… but him? That Bennett guy? That would mean…"

He turned suddenly and Jamie started. "Hey! Did that William Bennett have any siblings?"

"Uh…" Jamie checked the website. "It says he had a sister who died before he got married."

Jack returned to his pacing. "Only child, so he's the reason the Bennetts are here. They're direct descendants. But he married _Rosie,_ so…."

"Jack!" Jamie interrupted, and Jack stared at him with an expression crossed between amazement, bewilderment, and dawning realization. "What's going on? Why are you freaking out?"

"I'm not freaking out, I'm just thinking," Jack replied numbly. Jamie stifled a groan.

"Thanks for dodging the question, and you're freaking _me _out. What's wrong?"

Jack swallowed and shifted his weight back and forth in an attempt to calm himself down. After a long pause during which much deep consideration took place, he said slowly, "How to say this… so William Bennett is your great-great-howevermanygreats grandfather, right?"

"I guess so; that's what the website says," Jamie answered, confused.

"Right. Does it say who his wife was?"

"Yeah, Rose Overland, why?"

Jack was looking queasy. "Yeah, um…that…that was my sister."

There was a beat of silence.

"You had a _sister?" _Jamie gaped. "You never told me that!"

Jack threw his hands in the air. "Yes, because that is clearly the issue at hand here! Focus, kid! My sister's name was Rosie. Well, Rose, whatever. William Bennett married my sister Rosie."

He could practically see the gears in Jamie's head turning as he realized what that meant as well.

"So…so that means…"

"Right." Jack inhaled shakily. "In one way or another, however distantly, the two of us are related." His legs seemed to give out and he slumped down onto the carpet, holding his head in his hands. Jamie kneeled down next to him.

"…so why are you treating it like it's a bad thing?"

Jack peeked through his fingers. "What do you mean?"

"You're acting like it's bad that we're related," Jamie said quietly. "I think it's amazing. I always thought of you as my older brother anyway, and now you kind of are. Well, great-great-uncle-thing, technically, but the point still stands."

Jack thought for a moment then sighed heavily. "It's not a bad thing. Trust me, I'm happy too. It's just…unexpected. I didn't even know Rosie had had kids until now. I've spent so long knowing absolutely nothing about what she did after I di—"

He choked on whatever he had been about to say and replaced it with, "After I became immortal. Anyway, it makes so much sense now. I can't believe I'm just finding this out… Hey, you're taking this with a weird amount of grace. You are twelve."

Jamie rocked on his heels, grinning. "Are you kidding? I couldn't be happier. I want to start cheering right now, actually."

Jack stared at him for a moment, then returned his smile. "You know what? I couldn't be happier about this either. Come here."

Jackson Overland Frost, who never initiated physical contact if he could help it, reached out and pulled his great-something nephew into a tight embrace.

**A/N:**

**Badum-bum. Drama bomb. Sorta. I thought this chapter was going to be difficult to write and I wouldn't update until tomorrow but I managed it! It actually wasn't that hard.**

**Yo, check out our new cover art! It's by ****rollingstarr ****on tumblr, isn't it beautiful?! To the others who might have been working on cover art, I still want to see what you come out with, so don't quit because I am an attention whore who absolutely loves fan art. Yep.**

**Next chapter: Enter the OCs. **

**Crap I haven't actually developed any of them yet I need to get on that, I just have names and that's it. Oh and one of them has red hair. I AM SO ON TOP OF THINGS, YOU GUIZ.**

**Reply time.**

**Luna Awesomesauce 1012: I'm glad you caught the drama bomb reference because otherwise I would not let you be my real-life sister anymore. That's right; we would no longer be related. …I'm just kidding, I love you, see you on Friday XD**

**Alaia Skyhawk: I dunno, Eve doesn't have a lot of teeth left. I don't know if it'd be good if she lost any more at this point.**

**Camelot Emrys: I don't think Eve really knew what would happen when she made Jack human. I think his mind is just supplying the memories because he's human. And Tooth, well, she knows he can take care of himself, human or otherwise, and also knows he's not really in the mood to go about getting into trouble at the moment. **

**Novato: Whatcha bowing for? I'm not all that great.**

**Thanks to RandomKrazyPerson, myrddin767, OctoberThirtyFirst, NightFury812, Galaya, Lacie's Tune, quietlykissingdeath, azwolfe, Dragowolf, Forever Frosted, Allison, bedstories, Mystery Girl Who Writes, Citrine Griffin, Q-A the Authoress, QuillOwl, Sympathy for the Lost Love, khoathkeeper13, Snowsnowice, cartoonsAREepic, CelticGirl7, ShunKazamis-Girl, Thoytsi, Universal808, Stormgirl415, Yami's Devil, hisokauzumaki, and Sunny Lighter!**


	9. Chapter 9

Sophie, of course, was ecstatic when they told her. Her green eyes widened and she gasped, "Really?! You're like, our uncle?"

"Yep," Jack, who was reclining back on the bed in the guest room, nodded. "Distantly. Bloodlines tend to get watered down after three hundred years of procreation."

"Doesn't matter!" Sophie squealed, bouncing up and down in excitement. "We're related!" She grabbed Jamie's arm and shook it. "Remember all the times we talked about how we wished we were related to Jack? Well we are!"

Jamie caught Jack's amused look and blushed. "I remember, Soph. No need to bring it up."

Sophie looked up at Jack, "Are we short because of you?"

The winter spirit spluttered. "Short?!"

"Yeah," she shrugged. "You're short. Jamie's short. Mom's short. I'm short. Is it because of geometrics or something?"

"You mean genetics?" Jack asked, eyebrows rising as Jamie burst into laughter. Not fazed in the slightest, Sophie nodded.

"Yeah, that's the word. So is it?"

Jack thought back to Rosie and his own parents, and the grandparents he could only dimly remember having. He realized that, yes, the Overlands had definitely passed a curse of vertical challenges onto their descendants.

"Hm," he said. "I guess you're right, Soph. That's genetics. Our whole family has been short since the dawn of time."

"So it's your fault I get teased for being small?" Jamie asked flatly, yet stifling a smile.

Jack raised his hands defensively. "Hey, don't blame me! I wasn't the one who went and had kids, that was all my sister."

"So what now?" Sophie asked, changing the subject as she futilely brushed a few locks of tangled hair out of her face.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…" She flung herself onto the bed and moved to sit next to Jack. It went unnoticed by the siblings, but Jack smiled a bit wistfully when he remembered Rosie doing the same thing. "I mean, are we doing to tell people? 'Cause pretty much our whole family's coming over tomorrow and if you're related to us then that means they're related to you too."

There was a beat of silence, then Jack and Jamie simultaneously groaned.

"I forgot about that!" Jamie said, shoulders slumping forward. "I have to clean my room…"

Jack looked a bit more panicked. "People! People are coming. People I'm related to." He dropped his head into his hands. "Suddenly I actually miss being invisible."

Sophie blinked. "What's the big deal?"

"Okay Sophie, listen." Jack raised his head and failed in smiling at the girl. "We can't tell them I'm related. How would we explain that? 'Oh yeah, I'm your three-hundred-year-old ancestor and the reason I'm not dead is I got turned into the Spirit of Winter by the Moon, only I'm not the Spirit of Winter right now because'—gah, I really need to stop coming up with hypothetical situations in my head, it makes me feel worse." He took a deep, steadying breath, wishing there was a certain fairy there to calm him down like the mother she was. "In short, they'll think I'm crazy. I don't want that."

Jamie nodded with understanding. "That makes sense. I was wondering the same thing as her, actually. I think it would suck if your own family thought you were crazy."

Jack fell silent. He didn't want to ask the kids to not call the Bennetts-and-assorted-others his family. He'd been just thinking they were related, and that was all. Family and relations were not the same thing. People you loved and knew and people who knew and loved you in return were family. You didn't need a blood relation to call people family.

In Jack's mind, the Guardians were more a family than a group of strangers he had never met could be. Not for the first time, he wished he were back at Santoff Clausen for Christmas, irritating Bunny and the yetis, spending time with Tooth and Sandy, and possibly helping North get ready for Christmas Eve. It was what he'd been doing for the past few years, it was what he was accustomed to, yet Jack was honestly surprised at how much he missed the others. He usually saw at least one of them every two or three days, and while it hadn't been that long since the incident with Eve, it felt like weeks.

He appreciated knowing that he and the Bennetts were related. He was very happy knowing he had that connection to his two favorite kids. But the rest of them weren't his family, and Jack didn't know if they ever could be. He was the product of years of isolation, and from that various trust issues stemmed. Jack couldn't just acknowledge people he didn't trust as his family. He wholeheartedly trusted the Guardians, because they had proven themselves to each other time and time again.

Jack didn't trust these people.

Maybe that was why he knew the coming days were going to be so very uncomfortable.

**xXx**

The next day was chaos as Susan and her charges tried to get the house ready to hold nearly twenty people.

"Jamie, Sophie, are your room clean?" she asked as they bustled around the kitchen, "Jamie, Chris and David are going to be in your room, just like usual, and Brianna, Chelsea, and Addie will be in with Sophie. Hunter and Gavin are going to be with their parents." She turned to Jack. "Are you alright sleeping with Jamie and them? We need to free up the guest rooms."

"I'm fine," Jack answered, wiping down a counter. "It won't be a big deal."

"Good. Kids, you didn't answer my question. Are your rooms clean?"

"Yes," the siblings said together.

"Good, again. Thanks for helping out. What about all the other rooms?"

"Also clean," Jamie sighed. "Mom, we did a whole bunch of this stuff earlier."

"You could probably eat off the kitchen floor," Jack chipped in. "Not that we should."

Susan visibly relaxed. "I'll check it all later. Everyone should start getting here around five. If everything's taken care of, I'm going to go take a nap and preserve my energy until then."

She left the kitchen and Jack turned to the siblings.

"Is your family really that crazy?" he asked.

Jamie and Sophie nodded silently.

"…great."

**xXx**

"Jack, what are you doing?"

Jack looked up at Jamie mildly from where he sat on the shadowed stairs. "Observing."

It was five thirty, and the family was beginning to arrive. Jamie looked from Jack to the members beginning to pour into the house. "Okay. Now be honest, are you hiding because you're afraid to go down there and talk to everybody?"

Jack frowned at him. "Of course not. I'm not five years old. I'm just…" He leaned forward and put his chin in his palm, staring down into the living room. "Observing. This is really interesting."

"How is just looking more interesting than actually going down to meet all of them?"

"Think of it this way," Jack answered, gesturing towards the downstairs. "I am related to nearly everyone down there. All those people are my family, more or less. I'm trying to see…" He cut himself off, not wanting to say he was trying to see if he could detect any traces of Rosie in their faces. "So hey, you want to do me a favor?"

Jamie shrugged. "Sure, what is it?"

"Tell me everyone's name and what they're like before I go down there and embarrass myself."

Jamie grinned, finding it difficult to imagine Jack ever doing anything embarrassing. "Okay, if you really want me to." He hummed and scanned the area, then pointed to someone who had just walked in. "That's Amy. She's really cool and likes video games a lot. You don't have much to worry about with her. Amy's short for Amelia, by the way."

Amy was…an interesting first impression. She had obviously dyed bright-red hair pulled into a messy ponytail and wore an unconventional mash-up of thrift store clothes and what could only be described as hipster glasses. A girl with frizzy blonde hair who also wore glasses, whom Jamie identified as Amy's younger sister Chelsea, trailed after her with her nose stuck in a book. After a moment a tall, good-looking boy with cropped blonde hair came in after them.

"That's Chris," Jamie told Jack, "he's Amy's twin. They're seventeen. Chris looks like one of those jerk jocks, and he does do a lot of sports, but he's really nice too. Oh, and the kid behind him is David, and he's fourteen."

Jack nodded, absorbing the information. He pointed down at a haughty-looking blonde woman wearing a pantsuit, "I take it that's their mother?"

"Yeah, that's Aunt Linda. I'm going to try to stay away from her while everyone's here. Uncle Jim isn't here yet I guess, but he's probably still working. Their last name is Henderson."

"Okay. Um, that girl down there I'm guessing is Brianna?"

Jack didn't catch Jamie's grimace as he pointed out a girl with long, sleek brown hair and expensive, brand-name clothing. She managed to combine boredom and irritation into a single expression. As they watched, Brianna whipped out her cell phone and sent a lightning-fast text to an unknown somebody, and when a young boy with messy brown hair ("That's Hunter," Jamie said) collided into her, she roughly shoved him away and he ran away laughing.

"After that, the only kids are Addie and Gavin, and they're really little. They're probably with Aunt Shannon and Uncle Dan. Their last name is Grey."

"Would they happen to be the very normal-looking couple down there?"

"Yeah. I don't know how they ended up with Brianna and Hunter as their kids. Bri is totally growing up to be Aunt Linda; you'd think she was her own daughter. So, what do you think?"

Jack hummed thoughtfully. "Chances of survival are dwindling into single digits now."

Jamie laughed. "You got that from a movie."

"What, it's not relevant?"

The younger boy snorted and shook his head. "Whatever. I'm going to go down and say hi to everybody. You can stay up here and hide if you want." He stood and began heading down the stairs.

"I'm not hiding!" Jack insisted.

"Whatever you say."

**xXx**

Everything was much louder up close. Everyone seemed to be talking at once when Jamie arrived downstairs, feeling Jack's brown eyes boring into his back. He walked up to Chris and tapped the older boy on the shoulder.

Chris turned and his face lit up into a bright grin. "Jamie! How are you? It's been a while."

Jamie smiled back at his cousin. "Yeah, haven't seen you since summer. I've been good."

"Pittsburgh is too far away. I'd really like to visit more often." Chris looked around the room and ran a hand through his cropped blonde hair. "I wonder where Amy went. I bet she'd like to say hi." He shrugged. "Oh well. Hey, can I put my stuff up in your room? That's where David and I are sleeping, right?"

Jamie opened his mouth to answer affirmatively, and then thought of the asocial winter spirit on the stairs who would likely not appreciate being suddenly cornered by a six-foot-tall football player. He coughed and replied, "Actually, my room's pretty messy right now. You should probably stay out of it until I can pick all my things up."

"I don't mind, I just want to drop my bag off," Chris said, stepping towards the stairs. Jamie moved in front of him.

"No, really, it's bad. I don't want anyone to see it. Lots of…trash…and clothes." Jamie didn't really like lying to his cousin, especially when his room was actually immaculate, but when it came down to it he truly understood that Jack was not used to people and did not like talking to others unless he himself initiated the conversation.

Chris raised his eyebrows. "Alright then, if it's really that big of deal." He dropped his bag at the entry to the hallway and chuckled. "You're such a weird kid, Jamie."

"Wow, rude," a girl's voice said from behind them. The two boys turned to see the smirking, redheaded Amy leaning against the wall, arms crossed. Sophie stood next to her, looking as though she was trying to imitate the older girl's superior expression. "Jeez Chris, don't bully the ten-year-old."

"I'm twelve," Jamie replied with a laugh. Amy gasped dramatically and slapped a hand to her forehead.

"Oh no, I'm so dumb. How time flies." She grinned. "You haven't gotten much taller, though."

"That's genetics," Sophie told her importantly, and both she and Jamie could almost hear Jack laughing as she repeated his words from the previous day verbatim. "Our whole family's been short since the dawn of time."

"Oh really?" Chris chuckled, "then why are Amy and I so much taller than the two of you?"

"Also genetics," Jamie and Sophie said together. Before they could converse any further, however, Linda Henderson materialized behind them.

"What are you doing back here in the shadows?" she said, making them all jump.

Amy held a hand to her heart. "Mom! Make some noise when you move!"

Linda ignored her. "The whole family is going to the dining room to catch up. We'll be having dinner soon too." She frowned disapprovingly. "Your uncle Oliver is running late, as usual. Honestly, how I ended up with such an irresponsible brother…"

The twins exchanged an exasperated look.

"Okay Mom," Chris said. "We'll be out there in a sec."

Linda ignored him as well, for her eyes had landed on Sophie. Her mouth fell open and she snapped, "Sophie Rose Bennett, what have you done to your hair?"

Sophie blinked in confusion. "My hair? It's been like this forever."

"You look like you cut it yourself!"

"I do. Mama says 'it's good that I can feel comfortable expressing my individuality through my hair'." She folded her hands behind her back and rocked on her heels. "Mama's been letting me cut it the way I want for like five years, Auntie Linda. How are you just now noticing?"

Linda frowned deeply and pushed a blonde lock away from Sophie's ears, revealing bunny earrings. "You have pierced ears as well? What is Susan doing?"

Jamie took a step backwards as his aunt's eyes narrowed in at him.

"Parenting," Amy deadpanned. "Mom, don't we have a family to socialize with?"

"Don't take that tone with me, Amelia," Linda replied sharply, but she stopped harassing Sophie and instead turned on her heel and stalked towards the kitchen.

Jamie's breath rushed out, suddenly feeling grateful that Jack hadn't wanted to talk to anybody. His aunt probably would have targeted him as well.

Chris rubbed his eyes. "Well, we'd probably better get in there. We don't want to give _mother dear_ more ammunition."

Jamie thought of his own mother and felt sorely sorry for his cousins.

When they entered the dining room, the whole family was already seated and Susan was taking drink orders for everyone.

"Oh!" she said as the four children entered the room. "Sophie, can you help me please?" Her eyes scanned the room. "Jamie, where's Jack?"

The room quieted suddenly.

"Jack?" Shannon said, "Ah, the one boy you said was staying here for the time being?"

"Right," Susan nodded, then turned back to her son. "I'd like him to meet everyone. Do you know where he is?"

Jamie shuffled his feet. "Upstairs, I think."

"Could you go get him?"

"Uh…sure."

He left the room and walked through the living room. "Jack?" Jamie called, looking up the stairs.

Jack's argument of hiding-versus-observing completely lost all substance when he stood and bolted up the stairs away from the party of people.

Jamie sighed. "Really?"

**A/N:**

**Sorry it's been a couple days, I've been out having an actual life. …No really, I have. I explain everything I've been doing on my Facebook page and briefly on Snowflakes. Plus, this chapter gave me hell. I really don't like how it turned out, but whatever.**

**If anybody else is still confused: There will be NO romance in this story, aside from **_**possible **_**hints of FairyFrost, depending on the mood I'm in. NO ORIGINAL CHARACTERS OF MINE will be paired up with a canon character. I believe I've stressed this fairly often so I don't understand how it's still an issue. Romance would make no sense considering all these people are related D:**

**ShunKazamis-Girl: Dark Shadows, huh? I've never heard of that, I'll have to check it out. **

**knightlygirl: I have a weird feeling you meant to post that review on Snowflakes rather than here :P Good suggestion, though, I'll hang on to that.**

**Sora Moto: Oooh, there's an idea. I'll have to consider that. Thanks!**

**flowerpower71: Have you read Humanity by rand0msmil3z? That's easily the best human Jack story out there.**

**StarStreakedSky: That story is terrifying! And sad! Gahhh. And thank you for the suggestion, I'm totally using that. **

**InvaderZamG.a.r: Jack's sister doesn't have a canon name; Emma is just the name most of the fandom uses. Personally I prefer Rosie, so that's what I use.**

**Thoytsi: Why are you calling me sir?! You know I'm a female… And yes, the cover art is lovely and I completely adore it. **

**Luna Awesomesauce 1012: That review made no sense. Are you alright?**

**BobaAddict: I do my very best not to make characters Mary Sues. In fact, the ones in this story are so amazingly underdeveloped I don't think they really have the potential to become one XD**

**SilverEyeShinobi: I'm pretty sure most people saw it coming. I wasn't exactly being discreet about what I was going to do, but I couldn't very well skip over it and say, "Oh yeah, they're related by the way." That is very lazy writing, and this was a pretty big plot point so…yeah.**

**Thanks to Twinspired, OtakuAme, EpicDetour9, Sympathy for the Lost Love, RandomKrazyPerson, Stormgirl415, myrddin767, Novanto, khoathkeeper13, Silver-09, NightFury812, RainyDayinAstrasia, Loor101, Camelot Emrys, Mystery Girl Who Writes, CelticGirl7, Q-A the Authoress, Skifazoa, bedstories, all-star102938, LightMyBulb, toughcookie27, Dragowolf, DoomCabbit, cartoonsAREepic, QuillOwl, Insidiamini Textore, Alaia Skyhawk, Forever Frosted, Lolxxx, daughterofthehunt, DacerG, IThinkInPoetry, Bookworm290, azwolfe, and EmperialGem21.**

**Next chapter will be more interesting, with more interaction between people. I promise.**


	10. Chapter 10

When Jamie reached the upstairs floor, he was surprised and yet somehow expectant at what he saw. Jack was pacing back and forth in the hallway, muttering to himself again. Jamie figured that was just a habit picked up from three hundred years of isolation, but right now, he needed Jack to speak with someone aside from himself.

"Jack," he said, and when he didn't get a reaction he repeated, _"Jack!"_

The winter spirit halted in his tracks and spun to face his friend. There was a panicked sort of desperation in his eyes and Jamie stifled a rush of sympathy. Jack hated it when people felt sorry for him. He took a deep breath and said, "Mom wanted me to come get you. You have to meet everyone."

"I don't want to, though," Jack said flatly.

Jamie sighed. "You're acting like a little kid. Come on, where's the guy who threw a snowball at the Boogeyman's head?"

The older teen was silent and Jamie knew he had hit his mark, or at least somewhere close to it. "You weren't afraid when there was a big wave of nightmare dust coming towards us, right? Or…ever, really. You're not scared of anything."

"Everyone's scared of something, Jamie," Jack said softly, thinking of all the miniature heart attacks he had whenever he heard ice cracking. Right now though, he wasn't afraid of drowning. He was afraid of how he would act in front of all those people, all those reminders that his baby sister had grown up and had a life after his had ended. He was afraid he would let something slip about himself and his past, or that he wouldn't be able to even think straight and end up making a fool of himself.

"It won't be that bad," Jamie replied after a long pause. "I'm pretty sure you can handle whatever Aunt Linda throws at you, and the only other person who might be a problem is Brianna. She doesn't even talk much, just stays on her phone all the time. Everyone else is really nice, I promise."

Jack looked at him with an unreadable expression, and then smiled slightly. "It's weird. Normally I'm the one reassuring you about things."

"Normally I'm the one acting twelve," Jamie deadpanned, then laughed. "Come on. They'll wonder what's taking so long."

Jack's breath rushed out and he nodded slowly, hesitantly trailing behind Jamie as they made their way back to the dining room. His stomach curled in apprehension as the younger boy pushed the door open. For a moment, their arrival went unnoticed. Linda appeared to be speaking to (and highly irritating) her younger sister Susan.

"I'm just saying, what do the other children at school say about Sophie's hair? And the teachers? It can't be leaving a good impression, Susan, she runs around looking like she had her hair sawed off by a madman."

"She likes it that way, and I'm not one to protest my children expressing themselves," Susan replied calmly, though her knuckles were white as she gripped her coffee mug. "If Sophie likes cutting her own hair and doesn't let what other people say bother her, then I don't have a problem with it."

"Because God forbid children express themselves, right?" Amy chipped in humorously, pushing her square glasses further up her nose and reaching across the table to ruffle Sophie's uneven blonde tangles. "Soph, do people pick on you because of your hair?"

The little girl shook her head. "They ask why it's like that sometimes but leave me alone after I say it's the way it is because I like it. My teacher says it suits me, too."

"There you go," Susan said to Linda, narrowing her eyes at her sister as if daring her to push the subject further. Linda really shouldn't have been saying anything about Sophie's hair considering her daughter Amy had dyed her own a shade of fire-engine red, and Chelsea didn't even seem to care about her hair at all. It looked uncombed and hung barely past her jawline.

Jack wildly thought that he was the absolute last person who should have stepped into a conversation about messy hair, and might have bolted out of the room right then if not for the fact that Jamie had taken a firm hold of the back of his hoodie. When had that happened?

Jamie cleared his throat, breaking up the tense silence. "Uh, we're here."

And suddenly all inhabitants in the room were looking straight at them.

There was a time Jack relished attention, and would pull increasingly spectacular stunts to get it, just out of desperation to be noticed. But since the battle with Pitch and his induction into the Guardians four years ago, he'd stopped feeling the need to make himself known. Once he knew he wasn't going to be ignored anymore—not by everyone, at least—he felt content with the small amount of people he knew would acknowledge him. Namely the Guardians and his grand total of eight believers. So, twelve total.

There were a bit more people in this room than twelve. Counting the very young Addie and Gavin and excluding himself, there were fourteen. Okay, maybe that wasn't so bad and his mind was just making it seem like there were more than there was, but the majority of them were people Jack was completely unfamiliar with. Their scrutiny made him feel a discomfort that could only just be put into words, and he took an involuntary step backwards.

Susan stood and moved over to them, placing a hand on Jack's stiffened shoulder and saying, "Well, everyone, this is Jack."

"Jack Fr—Overland," he mumbled, ducking his head in the barest of greetings. He really needed to get his introductions under control; eventually someone would get suspicious at his false starts when it came to his surname.

_You're Jack Overland right now,_ he told himself. _Not Jack Frost._ The thought left a strangely hollow feeling in his chest.

It was the twins' younger brother David who spoke first. "Nice to meet you," he said shyly, smiling at the older teen. Jack hesitantly smiled back.

"I'm Amy!" Amy announced, raising her hand exuberantly. Chris introduced himself with a bit more grace than his sister. Soon introductions were flying around the table, very nearly overwhelming Jack with sheer numbers even though he already knew most of them.

As soon as the noise settled again Susan said, "There's an open chair between Sophie and David, if you want to sit there. Jamie, go sit by Shannon."

The two boys obliged and when they were seated, Jack found himself the center of attention once more.

"How old are you?" Hunter shot off immediately, leaning forward curiously.

"Seventeen," Jack answered, crossing his fingers under the table.

"Where are you from?" the young boy asked next.

"Here," Jack answered truthfully, then replied with, "Where are you from?"

Hunter looked happy to be asked. "We live in Philadelphia!"

"That's a long ways away," Jack replied. This was easier than he thought. Maybe it was because he was dealing with a kid rather than an adult. "Where does everyone else live?"

"Pittsburgh for us," Chris said with a friendly look. "Whole family's from here in Burgess, though. Uncle Oliver says we've been here a while."

Jack exchanged a glance with Jamie and Sophie, all stifling a grin. To his relief, the topic of conversation veered away from him when Dan said, "Where is Oliver? I'd have thought he'd be here by now. Maybe it's traffic."

"He does have to drive all the way from Princeton," Shannon pointed out. "I bet he's been travelling all day, so he'll probably be here soon.

Linda sniffed haughtily. "Princeton isn't very far from Philadelphia, and you and Dan made it here on time. With four children, no less."

"Uncle Oliver's also a college professor, Mom," Amy said testily. "I bet he had some work to do. And hey, when's Dad supposed to get here? Is he still working?"

Chris unsubtly nudged her under the table, and Amy settling for sending her mother a silent, narrow-eyed look which the blonde woman returned.

"What does your uncle teach?" Jack asked curiously.

To his surprise, it was the very quiet Chelsea who answered. Without looking up from her book she said, "American History at Princeton University. He teaches some Mythology on the side, too."

"He's a cool guy," David added. "He knows a lot of stuff."

"Most of it is boring," Brianna mumbled grumpily, tapping away at her cell phone. Shannon frowned at her daughter.

"Bri, put the phone away, we're catching up with the family."

With an overdramatic sigh, the teenager sent one final text then snapped her phone shut, shoving into the pocket of her jeans and slumping down in her seat, arms crossed. Amy rolled her eyes at her cousin, and Jack raised his eyebrows at Jamie as if to say, _You weren't kidding. _Jamie just nodded with an uncomfortable expression.

"So Jack," Linda said suddenly, and the winter spirit felt a stone drop in his stomach. She was the last person he wanted talking to him. Nonetheless, he turned and gave her his attention.

"Yeah?"

Her sharp green eyes narrowed in on him and her fingernails tapped against the table. Jack was forcibly reminded of Cruella DeVille. Susan sent her sister a warning look, which Linda, as she did with everything that didn't suit her interest, conveniently ignored.

"I hope you aren't taking advantage of my sister's hospitality," she said coolly. "It was very generous of her to take in a homeless stranger, and it would be very unbeneficial for you to do anything that would betray the trust she has given you."

"_Linda! _That was completely unnecessary!_"_ Susan snapped sharply, glaring angrily at the woman. Linda didn't even glance at her and kept her cold eyes focused on the teenager across the table. One could have heard a pin drop in the tension-filled silence that followed. Jamie and Sophie both looked uncharacteristically furious at the accusations their aunt was throwing towards the winter spirit.

Jack's hands curled into fists on his lap and he thought of his staff upstairs, lying safely tucked under Jamie's bed. This was what he'd been afraid of, and he very dearly wished he had the ability freeze that woman's superior look solid. Even Bunnymund wasn't this aggravating, even on his worst days.

Forcing himself to remain calm and stoic, he looked her straight in the eye and answered, "I like to think I haven't given Mrs. Bennett any reason not to trust me, and I intend to keep it that way. I'm perfectly aware of what she's done for me and while I'm still not entirely sure why she did, I'm going to repay it the best I can."

He tilted his head to one side, unable to resist adding in, "I don't even know you, shouldn't there be some kind of time passage requirement before you make assumptions about me?

_You don't know anything._

Linda, as well as a few other members of the family, looked completely floored at his answer. The blonde woman sat stunned for a moment, then her face twisted into a hideous scowl that would put Eve—hell, it'd put even Pitch Black himself to shame.

And Jack, to his credit, couldn't find himself caring.

**A/N:**

**It's past midnight as I write this I NEED TO GO TO SLEEP YOU GUYS. Gah, but I need to do Snowflakes too…**

**Reply time.**

**paracuties: No worries, I am a girl :D And thank you! I'm doing my best, so hearing things like that means a lot.**

**Silver-09: We shall see about Uncle Oliver. He's going to be an interesting character for sure.**

**IThinkInPoetry: Thanks for the idea, I implemented it to the best of my ability. I'm sorry you have a real-life Linda in your family, that sounds terrible…**

**daughterofthehunt: Most families tend to be pretty varied in their members, so I tried to make them all as different as I could. Take my family for example. There's me, the one who reads and fangirls over cartoons and kids' movies, and there's also my sports-oriented yet somehow slothlike older sister who doesn't do anything that involves effort if she can help it. Family members are usually very different, not Xeroxes of each other.**

**EpicDetour9 and FilledWithLunacy: Yes, that was How to Train Your Dragon reference! It's my favorite movie, so…yeah. I had to use at least one. Quoting Fishlegs is always a good thing. I'll have to throw in some Hiccup here and there, won't I?**

**LiviahEternal: I think I will fit something like that in somewhere down the line. You're right, it would be funny, watching the older kids watch Jack.**

**Q-A the Authoress: Your **_**middle**_** name is Grey? That's cool.**

**Thanks to ShopperGirl13, Sympathy for the Lost Love, Allycat18, Alaia Skyhawk, karasu99, OtakuAme, CelticGirl7, NightFury812, AmaraRae, Sunny Lighter, Novato, galacticEntity, Universal808, azwolfe, OctoberThirtyFirst, RedHal, StarStreakedSky, SilverEyeShinobi, TeddyBear98, bedstories, khoathkeeper13, DoomCabbit, LunaTheLoneWolf, Dragowolf, Ironic-Sarcasm, LightMyBulb, Camelot Emrys, iamonice, **


	11. Chapter 11

"God!" Amy exclaimed as they all vacated the dining room. "Our mother, holy crap." She turned to Jack and said apologetically, "I'm really sorry about her. She's been a nightmare since birth, I'm pretty sure. We have to apologize for her all the time."

The teenagers—Jack, Amy, Chris, Brianna, and David—as well as the younger kids over the age of five—Jamie, Sophie, Hunter, and Chelsea—had been all but kicked out of the dining room by a livid (though she hid it well) Susan, who told them all to just go hang out while the adults got dinner ready. Jack and the others were all pretty sure she was going to be chewing out Linda for her sister's behavior towards Jack.

The winter spirit shrugged. "It wasn't a big deal. Besides, she probably has a right to be suspicious. I did just sort of pop out of nowhere."

"That doesn't mean Mom should say rude things like that," David said uneasily. He seemed like the type of kid who was still growing into himself, and didn't really know what to do around others.

"Sorry for asking, but what's with you? Where _did_ you come from?" Chris said curiously. The others, with the exception of Brianna and Chelsea who were both in their own little worlds, zeroed in to catch the answer. Jamie unnecessarily elbowed his sister.

Jack smiled and shook his head. "Sorry, that's confidential."

"Oh, come on, what?" Amy sighed. "You have to give us something!"

"Nope." Jack stuck his hands into the front pocket of his hoodie. "It's private. You wouldn't believe me even if I told you." _You'd think I was crazy._ At that thought, he flashed a grin at Jamie and Sophie.

"Wanna bet?" Amy challenged.

"No."

They made it to the living room and sat down, a few taking the couch and a few others scattered on the floor. Hunter disappeared back in the direction of the kitchen, Brianna remained immersed in her cell phone, and Chelsea in her massive book.

"Sorry if it was insensitive to ask," Chris said to Jack. "Natural curiosity and all that."

"Really, it's not a problem," Jack replied hurriedly. "You don't have to keep apologizing. But if you really feel like making it up to me, you could tell me about yourselves."

Amy rolled her eyes. "Oh sure, we can't hear anything about you, but you want to know everything about us." She laughed with good humor. "Just kidding. What do you want to know?"

Jack shrugged. "What are you into?"

The twins shot off like a pair of rocket, Amy ranting about the old movies and video games she liked while Chris began a long tangent about sports like football and hockey. They talked over each other and sometimes even in sync, and Jack smiled. They were acting like stereotypical telepathic twins and he actually enjoyed listening to it. Something about Amy and Chris was so laid back; they seemed to put a whole room at ease.

He glanced to the side and caught Jamie's eye. The twelve-year-old was giving him an infuriatingly smug look and Jack shook his head, mouthing, "Shut up."

"—and I think fashion design is pretty cool, maybe I'd like to get into it someday," Amy said, then stopped and inhaled deeply. Her face was pink from talking so much. As she opened her mouth to continue, Brianna interrupted with a scoff.

"Fashion design?" She gave her cousin an once-over with critical brown eyes, raising dark eyebrows at Amy's odd, multi-colored assortment of clothing. "You?"

Amy's own blue eyes narrowed dangerously. "You got something to say, princess?"

Brianna flipped her hair back and Jack almost burst out laughing despite the sudden change in atmosphere. He didn't think teenage girls like that existed outside of media.

"I don't have anything to say," the sixteen-year-old said coolly, "aside from maybe you should try looking in a mirror before you leave the house. Combing your hair once in a while probably wouldn't hurt either."

Amy's face flushed. "Hey, I don't start any trouble with you about your skanky crap, why don't you shut your damn mouth for once and actually think about what you're saying?"

"Whoa, hey—" Jack began to intercede, but Chris placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. He, Jamie, Sophie, and David had distinctly resigned looks on their faces.

"Don't worry about it," David said in a low, awkward. He, for whatever reason, hadn't said a word since they had entered the living room. Jack chalked it up to shyness and instantly sympathized with the younger boy. "They fight all the time."

"Bri and our mom get along really well, so that's probably part of it," Chris added.

"Bri doesn't really get along with anyone though, and Amy tries to get along with everyone who's not Aunt Linda," Jamie said. "I guess the two opposites just don't go well together."

"I don't like it," Sophie grimaced. Jack patted her head.

"I gotta say, I don't like it much either," he told her.

Amy and Brianna's argument had escalated to nearly full-blown yelling at this point, and none of the other inhabitants of the room noticed the creak of the front door opening, nor the person who emerged from outside, brushing snowflakes off his shoulders. The man looked from the two bickering girls to the group sitting on the floor watching it like it was a circus act and raised his eyebrows.

"Well, is nobody going to break it up?"

Everyone jumped violently and spun to face him.

Jamie's face lit up into a bright grin. "Uncle Oliver!"

**xXx**

Jack didn't know what it was about Oliver Bennett, but he knew almost instantly that he liked him. Oliver was a tall, thin man in his early thirties who wore something that looked like an outdated tweed suit and an actual bow tie. Jack hadn't seen anyone wear one of those since…well, he had never actually seen someone wear a bow tie. The man also carried himself with a sense of knowledge and good humor and, like the twins, seemed to relax a room just by being there. He was the first adult that Jack was surprised to realize that he didn't feel uncomfortable around.

"You're Jack Overland?" Oliver had asked him, looking down at the winter spirit. He towered almost a foot taller than him but had a tendency to hunch his shoulders, whereas Jack always subconsciously stood up straight. He stuck his hand out. "I'm Oliver."

Jack hesitantly reached out and shook with the man. "Yeah, I'm Jack. Nice to meet you."

"No need to be so polite, I live on ramen noodles." He stretched and grinned. "You'd think that colleges would pay their professors better, but nope, my apartment also has an entire one light bulb."

Jack smiled back. It was difficult not to.

The whole family had been called in for dinner a several minutes after Oliver walked in, and the man had winked at his nieces, nephews, and Jack (who realized with some amusement that he was the cool uncle's uncle) and told them he had precisely timed his arrival to coincide with the food. He didn't even bat an eyelid when Linda irritably asked him why he was late, and merely gave his older sister the same explanation he'd given the kids.

They were all circled around the table and eating now and all the attention, from the children at least, was on Oliver. Linda didn't seem pleased, and nobody else seemed to care less. Eventually the conversation veered to entertainment, and everyone was discussing how they planned to spend the next day and the days after Christmas before everyone went home. The next day was Christmas Eve, something Jack was relieved about. Tomorrow night he would finally get an update from North on anything Tooth may have discovered about Eve, and how to reverse his situation. Would that even be possible?

He shook his head, snapping himself out of the worrying thoughts and looking up to rejoin the conversation.

"Hey, isn't there a pond somewhere around here?" David asked, looking to Jamie and Sophie for confirmation. When they nodded he continued, "I bet it's frozen solid this time of year. Maybe we could skate on it.

Jack instantly opened his mouth to tell the younger boy what a terrible idea that was; usually he did keep the pond frozen solid, but he didn't know how stable it was now because he hadn't frozen it for the past few days. With the dreams he'd been having lately, he was on edge and wasn't in the mood for history to repeat itself.

Oliver, however, beat him to the punch. "I don't think that's a good idea, Dave. I've read about the history of this town a bit and that pond doesn't really have a good reputation."

Amy's eyes widened. "What do you mean by that?"

"Apparently back in the colonial times, a kid fell in during winter and drowned. They never did find his body."

Jack didn't know what he'd been expecting, but that wasn't it. He choked on the water he'd been drinking and, of course, immediately attracted attention.

"You alright there?" Dan asked. Jack took several deep breaths and nodded wordlessly, not trusting himself to speak.

"So what happened?" Chelsea, in a rare moment of verbal interaction, brushed a few strands of hair out of her face and directed the topic back to her uncle, staring at him intently. "How'd he fall in?"

Oliver shrugged. "The ice on the pond probably gave way. Back then, they naturally didn't have indoor skating rinks, so this sort of was more likely than you might think. They say the kid was pretty young too, just a teenager. I don't know what he was doing on the middle of the pond anyway—whatever his name was, it's been lost over the years—but…" He chuckled dryly. "Since they never found his body, the pond gained a reputation for being bottomless. Once you're in, you don't come out."

All the children's eyes were wide as they absorbed this information. Jack, on the other hand, stared down at his clenched fists in his lap. He hadn't known that his drowning had turned into a famous local event, and he certainly hadn't known that everyone thought the pond was bottomless because his body went missing. This was all new, and he wasn't sure what to feel about it.

Nobody even knew his name anymore.

He supposed that was a good thing. If Oliver had mentioned the drowned boy's name as Jack Overland that would have led to way, way too many awkward questions. He would have had a very hard time talking his way out of that one. Jack allowed himself a subtle sigh of relief. He sure had dodged a bullet.

"You know," Amy said around a mouthful of mashed potatoes, "I saw this one show about a village in Japan where there was said to be a bottomless swamp that led straight into Hell, and a whole bunch of man-eating demons poured out of it and terrorized the humans that lived there. The place was even called "Village of the Demon."

Brianna wrinkled her nose. "That's disgusting."

Her brother Hunter apparently disagreed. "That's _awesome_!"

"Amy, please, we're eating," Shannon sighed, picking at her chicken.

The family fell into silence after that. Jamie glanced over to Jack and saw that he had stopped eating and was instead staring blankly at his plate, face pale. He hardly said a word the rest of the night.

Jamie didn't know what was going on with his friend, but he could tell it wasn't good. he wanted to know but it didn't look like Jack was willing to talk about it.

_Tomorrow,_ he thought as he drifted off to sleep, the other boys already snoring around him. _I'll ask him about it tomorrow._

**A/N:**

**Just so you know, I fully intended Oliver Bennett to look like the Eleventh Doctor. Yes, he is a walking Doctor Who reference. Speaking of references, Amy's mention of the Village of the Demon is a reference to my favorite anime, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. **

**I'm thinking updates every other day would be better for me right now. I've been staying up writing past midnight recently, and I think it's starting to take a toll on my physical health so…I should probably stop doing that. Also, I have semester finals coming up next week that I need to study for. German and Geometry are the ones I'm worrying about. My only other classes are English, Art, and American History, so pffft I can handle those. **

**Updating every other day gives me the chance to make the chapters longer, too. I almost didn't today because I've been writing up study guides, but I managed it. I'll have lots of time over the weekend, too. **

**Reply time~**

**AmaraRae: I dunno, Jack randomly carrying around a big stick would probably raise more questions than he really wants…**

**azwolfe: I see Linda as a sort of cross between Muriel and Rita Skeeter, now that you've brought it up. Superior and a know-it-all. **

**Mystery Girl Who Writes: What are you wondering about?**

**Thoytsi: Thank you for the comments about my OCs! I wanted them to be normal and unshippable. Romance really can break a story, and I'mjustreallybadatwritingitany way. And yes, OCxCanon pairings are my personal plague. I've really started to hate them, which makes me sad because I have read a few good ones for Hetalia… just goes to show how much the RotG fandom is ruining my life XD **

**Dude: Chris and Amy are both seventeen, and Amy is the older twin. It makes her mad that he's so much taller than she is. I think Chris is the only one in his family who didn't inherit the short gene, hehe.**

**k-h-o: I really wish you had an account and weren't a guest because I feel like I really, really need to talk with you in private right now. **

**flowerpower71: I hate Linda too. I hate all my OCs. I want to torture them with death. …Okay, not really, I do like Chris and Amy and Oliver. **

**all-star102938: Actually, the official Guide to the Guardians says that Jack was eighteen when he died, while the RotG app says he was seventeen. I like seventeen better so I'm sticking with that. **

**Citrine Griffin: FAN ART? REALLY? I'M GOING TO HOLD YOU TO THAT. I am excited. **

**Stormgirl415: Tooth and the other Guardians will definitely show up again, but not until later. As for how they fix Eve's spell…well, that's a secret :D You'll see soon enough. I can't go giving out all my surprises just yet.**

**Thanks to cartoonsAREepic, HarmonySoundown, Camelot Emrys, RedLicorice, Alaia Skyhawk, LiviahEternal, NighFury812, Q-A the Authoress, OtakuAme, daughterofthehunt, QuillOwl, bedstories, SilverEyeShinobi, Novanto, fishy girly, paracuties, ShunKazamis-Girl, OctoberThirtyFirst, CelticGirl7, Nicole Worley, Nebula358, TeddyBear98, RandomKrazyPerson, Skifazoa, Silver-09, Tigermike83, Dragowolf, Twinspired, Lolxxx, IThinkInPoetry, Luna Awesomesauce 1012, art chic 99, Forever Frosted, demone, Shadowfox94, and RememberTheMuse! **

**Next chapter: More dreams and just random screwing around, I guess. Maybe a possible visit from our favorite Russian? :D **


	12. Chapter 12

_In the end, Jack let Rosie beat him to the pond. The little girl cheered when she reached the edge of the ice, jumping up and punching the air like she was one of the boys who just won a rugby match. Jack smiled and shook his head. _

"_Okay little lady, you lace up your skates while I test out the ice. Sound good?"_

_Rosie looked up and nodded. "Alright. Be careful."_

_He laughed. "What are you talking about? I'm always careful."_

"…_Jackson."_

"_Okay, okay. No need to channel Mother dear. We're here to have fun, remember?"_

_Rosie frowned, but her mouth quirked up in a tiny smile. "It's not going to be fun if one of us ends up as an icicle."_

"_Icicle, right," Jack snorted. "Just get your skates on. I'll be right back."_

_He left her sitting on the ground struggling with her laces and moved to pull his own skates on. The ties on his were starting to weaken and fray; he would have to ask his mother to mend them for him later, before they completely snapped off in his hand. Rosie had really taken to ice skating since he had taught her. She loved doing it and begged Jack to take her out as often as possible. She was only eight and couldn't go by herself._

_Most other seventeen year old boys in Burgess would brush off their younger siblings and go do something like play rough games or go hunting. Not Jack. He freely admitted to his whole life revolving around his sister. He loved spending time with her, and if she wanted to ice skating it wasn't as though he would turn her down. _

_Jack easily tied his own laces and stepped out onto the ice, carefully beginning a slow circle around the shore before moving further towards the center. The ice creaked under his feet as he neared the center of the pond, and he hurriedly moved back to where Rosie was waiting, having successfully tied her skates at last._

"_We're going to have to stay near the shore today," he told her. "It's not safe near the middle."_

_She pouted. "It's 'cause spring is coming. Soon we won't be able to come out again at all."_

"_Right, so let's just enjoy ourselves while we can." He bowed like a gentleman and extended a hand to help her up. "Shall we, milady?" _

_Rosie giggled, blew her dark bangs away from her eyes, and allowed Jack to pull her to her feet. He helped her over to the pond and within moments, the two of them were on the ice and skating around in circles, going faster and faster. Before long, it turned into an all-out race between the two, seeing who could complete the most laps faster. Red-faced and laughing, the siblings kept at it for at least an hour, with Jack occasionally providing tips for Rosie so it was easier for her to stay upright, turn, or go faster. _

_He really wasn't sure what had happened. Maybe she had veered a little too close to the middle of the pond, and possibly ran over a stone or fallen stick that knocked her off balance. Maybe she'd just lost her footing on the slick ice. Whatever it was, it had knocked Rosie off her feet as she completed a turn, and before Jack had time to react the little girl was skidding on her knees to towards the unstable center. She lay still for a moment, winded, then to Jack's relief she sat up and shook her hair out of her eyes. _

"_You alright?" he called over. She nodded and moved to stand up. _

_The sound of ice cracking echoed like a gunshot through the clearing, and both siblings froze. With a sinking feeling of dread, Jack looked down to his sister's feet. _

_A sharp spike of fear shot through him as he watched a few fine, spindly cracks spread like webs under Rosie's skates. _

**xXx**

Jack didn't bolt awake like he usually did after a dream like that. Instead he slowly opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling of Jamie's bedroom with a sinking feeling of dread. He had been hoping those were over by now, since Tooth had promised to talk to Sandy about the matter. He sighed as he remembered the previous night. He and Jamie had stayed up pretty late with Amy, Chris, and David, so he must have missed the dream sand as it came passing through the area.

It was perfectly quiet in Jamie's room, which likely meant that he and Chris and David were up and out already, which also pointed to it being fairly late in the morning by now. He'd overslept, again. This dream had been longer than the others, that was for sure. Jack sighed again. Why was he dreaming about his human life? More specifically, about his final day alive? He knew what event the dreams were leading up to, and he didn't like it. Living it once had been bad enough.

He sat up and ran his hands through his hair, looking at the clock. Sure enough, it was past ten in the morning. He had crashed in a sleeping bag on the floor, along with Chris and David, while Jamie kept his bed. Both guest rooms were taken by the other members of the family, and Sophie was sharing her room with Amy and Brianna. With a deep breath, Jack stood and got dressed in his usual plain shirt and jeans, pulling his hoodie overtop. He didn't bother with shoes just yet.

The door to the bedroom creaked open, and Jack spun to see who was coming in. To his surprise, Oliver stepped inside.

"Oh, you're awake," he said cheerily. "I've been sent up here to see if you're alive. I'll be sure to let everyone know that they have nothing to worry about."

"Yeah, sorry," Jack replied tiredly. "I don't sleep well."

"Bad dreams?"

The winter spirit blinked up at the man in surprise. "What?"

Oliver just shrugged. "I get bad dreams sometimes. I'm sure everyone does. They're not very restful, are they?"

"Yeah," Jack said. "Wait, no. No they're not. Restful." Wow, that man knew how to hit close to home far too often. Not that Jack would ever say so out loud.

There was a long beat of awkward silence, which was one of Jack's least favorite things in the world. He racked his mind for anything to alleviate the stifling quiet, but the best thing he could come up with was a weak, "Why do you dress like that?"

"Why do I dress like what?" Oliver casually leaned against the door frame and regarded the teenager curiously.

"The…suit and bowtie. I've never seen anyone actually do that." _Stop talking, Jack._

To his relief, Oliver grinned humorously. "I'm playing the part of an eccentric college professor. Well, not playing per se; it is what I actually am. Besides," he sniffed, indignantly straightening his tweed jacket, "bowties are cool."

Jack shrugged. "Guess I can't argue with that."

"No you cannot. Nobody can. So, is it my turn to ask you a question?"

"Sure, I suppose." _Stop __**talking**__, Jack! You don't need people prying! _All of his better judgment was flying out the window. What kind of mind powers did Oliver have?!

"Okay then." Oliver crossed his arms. "Tell me, why did you react so badly when I brought up the boy who drowned in the pond at dinner last night?"

Jack swallowed. Oh no. "W-What do you mean?"

"Well, for starters, you about coughed up several internal organs when I mentioned it, and then you didn't say a word the entire rest of the night. What gives?"

"Um..." Jack wiped his palms on his jeans, wondering what he could say. Oliver was sharp, no doubt about that, so he would only take a plausible explanation. Well then... He got an idea and, feigning hesitation, began to utilize his infamous lying skills.

"It's kind of personal," he mumbled, feeling dirty. It felt so wrong to lie to his relatives.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to," Oliver said, though Jack could practically hear the curiosity straining his voice. He shook his head and took a deep breath.

"It's fine. Okay, when Susan found me, I was passed out on the ice in the middle of the pond. I honestly don't remember how I got there. It was just... When you mentioned that the kid drowned there by falling through ice, it was really kind of shocking to realize that the same thing could have happened to me."

Well. That was easily one of the best falsehoods he had ever come up with. Jack ignored the familiar twinge of painful nostalgia as he waited for the older man's reaction.

Oliver contemplated him with an unreadable expression, before his face broke into an understanding smile. "I'm sorry I asked. That was personal, as you said. Shall we go downstairs? Everyone else who isn't Brianna is already awake. Merry Christmas Eve, by the way."

"Wait. One more for me."

Jack didn't know what he was doing. Something about this man intrigued him, and he could tell the sentiment was shared on the other side as well.

Oliver turned and waited expectantly, and Jack said, "Do you believe in magic?"

The man was obviously surprised by the question, but appeared to put honest thought into his answer. After a few moments of careful consideration, he replied slowly, "Maybe not things like fairy tales but, as I teach mythology as well as history, I do like to believe that something was behind putting all the legends in place."

"Like what? Some kind of god?" _Or the moon?_

Oliver smirked playfully. "Hold on. You said only one more question. It's my turn now, and I think I'll hold onto it for later." He motioned out the door. "Shall we go downstairs?"

After a pause, Jack nodded mutely and followed the man out. he wasn't sure what to think about the conversation that had just transpired. Maybe the magic question would put unneeded ideas into Oliver Bennett's head.

Oliver, for his part, thought the boy was definitely hiding something. He just couldn't figure out what that may be.

**xXx**

Jamie sighed heavily. It was Christmas Eve, yet the day wasn't proving to be very eventful. His mother, Shannon, and Dan had gone to the store to pick up some last-minute groceries for dinner the following night. His uncle Jim, Linda's husband, had finally shown up earlier that morning but he hadn't done much so far, just sat on his laptop in the dining room and made business calls on his phone. Linda was on her laptop as well, scrolling through webpages with an unsettling glare.

The kids, aside from Brianna who was still asleep and Gavin who had been taken shopping with Shannon, were all gathered in the living room in front of the fire. Four-year-old Addie sat on Amy's lap, having her brown hair pulled into braided pigtails by the older girl. Hunter was playing with toy cars on the carpet, Chelsea of course was reading, and Sophie was drawing rabbits in her sketchpad while Chris flipped through sports channels on the television. David was at his side, trying to pretend he was as interested in the statistics of field hockey as his brother was. Aside from the sounds of the television, the room was silent.

Everyone looked up as Oliver came down the stairs, followed by a tired-looking Jack.

"Look," Oliver said, "he lives."

"Morning," Jack said uncomfortably, moving to sit next to Jamie. He offered the twelve-year-old a weak smile, which Jamie didn't buy for an instant. However, with the other people around, he didn't have the chance to ask what was wrong with the winter spirit.

"We thought you were dead," Amy told him cheerfully over the top of Addison's small head.

Jack silently shook his head. Oliver said, "I have some papers I need to grade so I'll be in the kitchen doing that. Have at it, kids."

Turns out, they didn't really "have at it." They remained in their original positions all day, despite all the talk that had transpired the previous evening about what they would do with their time on Christmas Eve. Brianna got out of bed around noon. Only the smell of food that evening pulled the children out of their stupor.

"Well that was uneventful," Chris said as he, Jamie, Jack, and David climbed the stairs that night back to Jamie's room. "And here we were discussing all these plans."

David shrugged. "I doubt a lot of places would have been open today, anyway."

"Good point."

The four changed and settled in for the night. Around eleven-thirty, Jamie heard someone stir and cracked his eyes open to see Jack's slim figure carefully ease its way out the door and into the hallway. The stairs creaked quietly as he made his way down into the living room.

After waiting a few moments, Jamie crawled out of bed, taking care not to tread on his two sleeping cousins as he stepped across the floor and out his bedroom door. He crept down the hall and descended the stairs into the living room.

Jack was sprawled on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. He glanced over sharply as Jamie walked in, before visibly relaxing.

"Oh, it's just you," he said, sitting up. Jamie took the seat next to him.

"He hasn't shown up yet?" he asked. "Santa, I mean."

Jack shook his head. "Nope, not yet. He should be on his way though, he usually covers Asia and Europe first before jumping the Atlantic."

Jamie stayed silent for a moment, fiddling with the hem of his nightshirt. This was his chance to ask Jack exactly what was going on, and he didn't feel very brave about it at all. What if Jack got mad as refused to say anything, chastising him for his nosiness? Jamie took a deep breath. Now was not the time to chicken out.

"Jack?" he said in a small voice.

Jack looked over to him and replied, "What's up?"

"Uh..." Jamie hesitated, and then blurted, "Why don't you ever talk to me?"

Jack blinked in confusion. "What do you mean? I talk to you all the time."

"That's not it. I mean about important stuff. Like, something's been bothering you lately and you won't say what it is, you just say 'I'm fine' and change the subject." The younger boy looked up at him with hurt and apprehensive brown eyes. "You help me with everything. School, friend stuff, whatever. Doesn't matter what it is, you're always there for me. And now when I want to be there for you, you don't say anything to me."

"...Is that want you wanted to say?"

Jamie swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded. "I just want you to be able to trust me, especially since now we know we're, well, related and everything. I think family should be able to help each other out."

The room fell into a tense silence. Jamie pulled his legs up to his chest and buried his face in his knees while Jack gaped at him disbelievingly. Just as the stillness began to get unbearable, he heard the winter spirit say quietly, "You remind me of her."

Jamie peeked out to see Jack's head in his hands. "Of who?" he asked hesitantly.

"My sister," Jack mumbled. "Rosie. She said things like that sometimes." He let out a heavy breath. "I'm sorry, Jamie. You're right. I should be able to talk to you, but… It's just hard sometimes." He straightened up and looked Jamie right in the eye. "Alright. You deserve to hear. I never said anything about it because I always thought you were just a kid who didn't need to hear about things like this…" He broke off, looking uncomfortable.

"That doesn't matter," Jamie said reassuringly. "What is it?"

"Do you remember last night, when Oliver was talking about that boy who drowned in the pond a long time ago?"

"I think so, why?" Jamie caught Jack's expression and his mouth fell open as he made the connection. "Oh. _Ohhh._ That was…"

Jack grinned weakly. "You're sharp. Yes, that was me."

"But…how? I mean…" Jamie gestured vaguely in the winter spirit's direction. "You're obviously not a zombie or anything. If you died, how are you still alive? What happened?"

The smile slipped off Jack's face and his expression turned solemn once more. "Jack Frost happened," he said. "After I fell through the ice, the Man in the Moon pulled me out and turned me immortal. And, as they say, the rest is history."

Jamie frowned. There was still something he felt like he needed to know. "What were you doing on the pond in the first place? Honestly Jack, I think you're too smart to have thought that was a good idea."

A look of pain flashed across Jack's face and he swallowed nervously. "Rosie and I… we thought it would be okay. it was the middle of winter and the pond had been frozen every day before that." He sighed out through his nose. "Well, spring was on the way, so maybe it was a pretty poor moment of judgment for us. Anyway, she'd really been getting into ice skating and wanted to go out one more time before the pond thawed completely. There was an accident, and… I fell through."

Even after three hundred years the topic of Jack's rescue of his sister was still sore for him. He didn't feel the need to go into detail about the 'accident' and, thankfully, Jamie didn't ask. Jamie himself was thinking about how sad it was that an accidental death had been turned into a somewhat creepy folk legend.

"Is that what's been bothering you?" he asked. "I mean with you sleeping all the time."

Jack nodded. "I think it's because of this whole human thing. I've been having dreams of that day and I haven't slept well because of it."

"Oh…"

Jack looked to Jamie and smiled. "You know, you've grown up a lot. I thought that since you were a kid you wouldn't fully understand all of this or were too young to hear it." He laughed lightly. "I definitely won't be making that mistake again."

Jamie grinned back, but before he had a chance to reply the two were distracted by something hurtling down the stairs. Surprised, they turned to see little Addison stumble to a halt, red-faced with excitement and clutching a small fleece blanket.

"Addie?" Jamie asked, "What are you doing up?"

The child pointed upwards and bounced on her heels. "I heard something! On the roof!" Her face lit up and she giggled, "Jamie, is it Santa? Is Santa here?"

Jack bolted upright. "Really? You heard something, Addie?"

She nodded adamantly and stuck her thumb in her mouth. "I wanna see Santa," she said around her thumb. Just as the words left her mouth, the two boys indeed heard a thumping coming from outside.

Jack's face broke into the brightest smile Jamie had ever seen and scooped Addie into his arms. "You know what, kiddo? I think you might be right. Santa's here."

As if on cue, the fireplace in the living room expanded and one second later, a pair of large black boots landed firmly in the ashes.

**A/N:**

**See? What did I tell you about being able to make the chapters longer? And oh look, North's here, the plot can move forward once more! North was going to have a bigger part this chapter, but then the dream and the conversation with Oliver took up a lot more space than I had expected. Ugh, filler. **

**This chapter has a bit more feels than I thought it would. It's because I was listening to the Les Misérables soundtrack. That'll do it. **

**I was surprised at how many Doctor Who fans I have in my audience here. Thus, I had to include the "Bowties are cool" line. Just for you guys. **

**Reply time.**

**Iloveanimals: Actually, and I have covered this **_**quite often,**_** Jack's sister DOES NOT HAVE AN OFFICIAL NAME. Pippa is the name of Jamie's redheaded friend who hit Cupcake with a snowball. The two characters share the same voice actress, so that's where the fandom got confused. Do I have to hunt up the movie screenplay and put it on display so people get it straightened out? Because I can! I'm sorry, I'm just sick of having to say this **_**all the time.**_** I even talked about this in the chapter you reviewed on and the chapter after, didn't you see those?**

**Lolxxx: Believe it or not, this isn't the first time I've had someone bow to me over the internet. I don't understand why people do it, honestly. Haha. Thank you!**

**galacticEntity: OH MAH GAHD. Fan art makes me so ridiculously happy.**

**azwolfe: Honestly, I don't like flashbacks much either. But alas, I am the victim of my own plot bunny, and I must obey what it tells me to do. If I need flashbacks, then I must put them in…**

**BobaAddict: I SAW THAT. THANK YOU SO MUCH. Ohhh, you have your own little Brianna? I'm looking forward to that :D Of course, I look forward to all your updates. Also, I'm perfectly fine with swearing. I try not to do so in my stories because not everyone is as comfortable with it as I am, but yeah. It's totally cool if my reviewers feel like utilizing their own vocabularies. It's educational.**

**Stormgirl415: Ah, you ask questions I cannot answer… Spoilers… *flail* Actually, I'm sure you guys will like how the climax plays out. I've been planning it out for a while and I'm really excited for it to get to that point. **

**RainyDayinAstrasia: Yes, lots of OCs, I'm sorry… Fortunately, only a small number of them are really relevant to the story (Chris, Amy, Oliver, possibly David and Chelsea). The rest of them are only really there for my own amusement and vague plot convenience. **

**UnitedKingdomrules: No worries, it's only every other day! And maybe sometimes I'll surprise you with early updates. Hey, it's possible. Also, it's likely that this will only be for a short time. My finals only take three days. **

**StarStreakedSky: I'm alright with this. Meet me at the altar in five. **

**Dragowolf: There aren't a lot of spoilers I can give out, but I can safely say that the other Guardians will definitely make appearances, Sandy and Bunny included. **

**Camelot Emrys: Well, I don't know the names of my ancestors from 300 years ago. The Bennetts know themselves as the Bennetts, not the Overlands. The Overland name vanished when Rosie married and her parents died, because Jack wasn't around to grow up and carry on the line. Thus, it was lost. **

**Mystery Girl Who Writes: Yes, go watch Higurashi. It is the best. It's pretty gory and scary though, so I wouldn't recommend it if you aren't fine with that stuff (it includes, among other things, little girls being ritually disemboweled). But it's really sad and amazing once you look past the horror. Also confusing at first, but everything is explained in the second season. /end anime-fangirl rant**

**daughterofthehunt: You're Russian? :D That's so cool. Quite frankly I wish I could be something other than very generic American. **

**Thanks to Myaerdna, AmaraRae, OtakuAme, Sapphire noodles, OctoberThirtyFirst, EpicDetour9, Kh530, VasHappeninTeam, Q-A the Authoress, TeddyBear98, Yangu Fuyu, Forever Frosted, Novanto, CelticGirl7, readandwrite4evernever20, Alluring Alliteration, hellraven-ovo, paracuties, RandomKrazyPerson, SilverEyeShinobi, Guest, XSilverXGoldXSonataX, Thoytsi, farfetched4, HarmonySoundown, QuillOwl, Alaia Skyhawk, SkyHighFan, k-h-o, CoolCat, anonymoose, honeybear1200, Silver-09, Citrine Griffin, Uniquely X, agent000, Eauingchun, Nicole Worley, Ironic-Sarcasm, flowerpower71, and Darkrystal Sky!**


	13. Chapter 13

Jack grinned broadly as he passed a giggling Addison to Jamie and hurried over to the fireplace to help North through. The large Russian had to bend down to his knees and sort of shuffle into the room before turning and pulling his massive sack (the interior of which Jack happened to be very familiar with) of gifts through as well. He straightened up and adjusted his hat, blue eyes scanning the room before landing on the small group. He looked confused for a moment when he saw Jack, but after a moment his face dawned in recognition.

"Ah, Jack!" he greeted, striding over to the winter spirit. "I did not recognize you at first."

"Yeah, I can see how you wouldn't," Jack replied with a smile. North reached out and ruffled his brown hair as though he was a small child.

"Very different," he said, "but it doesn't look bad. It suits you just as much as white."

"That's what Tooth said."

"We do not lie about these things." North turned to Jamie. "It has also been a while since I've seen you! You've gotten very big."

"Not really," Jamie said a bit shyly. "Only a few inches."

Addie bounced in his arms. "It's Santa!" she squealed. "Santa, Santa!"

North chuckled and waved to her before turning back to Jack. "As much as I would like to sit and catch up, we have much to talk about and not too much time."

"Right," Jack nodded. "Jamie, I'm sorry, but can you take Addie back upstairs? This'll be hard with her around. I promise, I'll tell you everything later."

Jamie hesitated, and then smiled understandingly. "Alright," he said, turning to Addie. "Come on, let's go back upstairs."

"But it's Santa," she whined.

"I know," he said, reaching out a hand to his cousin, "but he can't leave presents if little kids watch him. We need to go to sleep."

Addie pouted, but took his hand with a mumbled, "Okay."

Jamie let the little girl up the stairs, looking back to say, "You promise?"

"I promise," Jack answered. Within a few moments, the two younger kids were out of sight, and he turned his full attention to North. "So how long do we have?"

"Enough to explain everything," the older man replied. "Time moves a bit slower while I'm on the job."

"I didn't know that, but I imagine that's not what you came here to talk about, and I don't really want to go into a long conversation on the inner machinations of toy delivery." Jack took a deep breath, feeling antsy and resisting the urge to begin pacing like he usually. "So let's get to it. Did Tooth find out anything?"

"Well…" North paused, thoughtfully stroking his beard. "Yes and no."

Jack's eager face fell. "What does _yes and no_ mean? Did she find anything out or not?"

"Jack, listen." North's hands gripped his shoulders. "This is a big situation. As far as we know, an immortal has never lost their powers before. We're covering completely new ground, and we're not entirely sure what to do."

"Can you just get to the point?" Jack snapped. "This isn't exactly fun for me! I'm tired all the time, I'm having crazy dreams of the day I died, I'm completely awkward around people who are supposed to be my blood family, and the worst part is I feel completely weak and useless and _I hate it!"_

He let out a shuddering breath and his shoulders hunched. He looked up at North, who was shocked at the outburst, with anguished brown eyes and said quietly, "Jack Frost is who I'm supposed to be. I'm not…" He gestured to his body. "I'm not this person anymore. I was, a long time ago, but that ended. I just want to be back to normal."

"You will be," North said gently. "I promise that. No matter how long it takes, we'll get you back to your normal self."

"I read about this in a book once," Jack said. "I remembered just now. I'm dealing with suppressed trauma and something like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Well, if it's not that, it's something similar. I don't really remember."

"Jack. Focus. Do you want to hear what Tooth said?"

"…Yes. Of course I do."

"Alright. She said that when she went through Eve's memories, they were all jumbled up. This is likely a result of Eve's own mental process; she can't keep her own thoughts in order, let alone her memories. Tooth couldn't find anything that could help with the spell she cast on you."

Jack groaned and sank to the floor. "So what now? If we can't break it ourselves, what do we do? It's not like we can just hunt up Eve, because she's all over the place. I bet it's impossible to track her down."

"Well, not exactly."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

North's blue eyes twinkled. "We have tracked her down."

"What?!" Jack jumped to his feet. "How? Where is she? Why didn't you tell me this first, we could have—"

The older held up a hand, stopping Jack in his verbal tracks. "We haven't pinpointed her location specifically, but we know she's in this general area. The Northeast United States, I mean. Sandy found out the other night as he was making his rounds with the sand, and Bunny said he—"

Jack cut him off with a groan. "I told Tooth _not_ to tell Bunny about this!"

North sighed. "Believe it or not, he didn't seem in the mood for making fun of you when he found out. In fact, it almost seems like he's the most worried out of all of us."

"Okay," Jack said warily. "So what did he say?"

"His hypothesis is that Eve is intentionally staying close to you. We aren't sure why she's doing so, but the rest of us agree. It's not much of a plan, but we figure that our best bet is to wait for her to come to you."

"I see a hole in this plan. A couple, actually." Jack did begin pacing here. "What if Eve is just hanging around this area of the country for the hell of it? And, barring that, what if she does show up? What do I do? It's not like I have the power to fight her off or get her to do anything."

"Don't worry, we've thought of this as well," North assured. "If she is just merely staying in this area and doesn't do anything, then we'll track her down ourselves. on the other hand, we're keeping a close eye on her movements. Sandy has that covered; he's able to keep track of these things with his sand. If she comes after you, at least one of us won't be far behind. Bunny's been tailing her as best he can, and Tooth sends out some reconnaissance fairies every so often."

Jack was silent and North leaned down to look him in the eye. "We're going to get this reversed," he said. "Trust me. Can you hang in there just a little while longer?"

The winter spirit swallowed and, after a moment, nodded once. North straightened up and clapped him on the shoulder. "Good. Now, I expect to see you at Santoff Clausen on the twenty-seventh. No excuses."

Jack looked up at him in surprise and confusion. "What? North, exactly what were we just talking about? I can't go anywhere as long as I'm human."

"You are not missing out on our Christmas celebration," the Russian replied sternly. "No excuses. If it were Easter or any other holiday, maybe I would allow you to skip. But Christmas is more important."

"But—"

"_No excuses."_ North let out a hearty laugh. "If I have to send the yetis and the sack again to secure you, I will." Jack shuddered. He did not like the sack. Ignoring this, North hoisted up his sack again and began to move towards the fireplace. He stepped inside, and turned back to say goodbye.

"I will see you soon. Merry Christmas."

Jack gave him a small smile. "You too. See you soon. Good luck on the delivery."

North disappeared up the chimney, and it was only after his feet vanished that Jack realized. He rushed over to the fireplace and called up, "You forgot to leave presents!" then dodged as about a dozen colorful boxes came raining down onto the ashes. Jack sighed and shook his head with a grin, grabbing the gifts and placing them carefully under the Christmas tree. Once that was done, he turned to finally head back upstairs…

…And found himself face-to-face with a very suspicious-looking Brianna.

Jack yelped and stumbled backwards. "What are you doing?!"

"What am_ I_ doing?" she sniffed. "What are _you_ doing? I heard you down here talking to someone. Who was it?"

"I-I wasn't talking to anyone," he stammered defensively. "Do you see anyone down here?"

"They could have left already." She put her hands on her hips and shook her hair back, an act that might have looked haughty if she weren't wearing a pair of polka-dot pajamas and a satin bathrobe. "You know, I think Aunt Linda's right about you. You're up to something. I don't know what it is, but everyone's wrong to trust you so much."

She narrowed her brown eyes and moved towards him. Unnerved, Jack took several steps backwards to get away from him.

"Why do I have to be 'up to something'?" he asked her, matching her glare. "I think you just like finding a problem with everything. Just like your aunt."

Honestly, he didn't see how he could be related to this girl and Linda. Every family had their bad apples, he supposed, but still. These people were descended from _Rosie?_ Jack was still having trouble wrapping his mind around that. It didn't help that he just noticed that Brianna had the same sort of eye shape and color as his sister. He shook his head. _Stop thinking like that._ _Get it together, you have a problem. She's onto you._

Brianna watched him with a confounded expression. "Either you're up to something with another person, or you're absolutely crazy. Either way, you shouldn't be around us. We don't need someone dangerous like you. Why won't you say where you really come from? Don't you have your own family?" Her voice dropped to a low hiss. "You're hiding something big, and we're going to find out what it is. If I were you, I'd get out quick. I don't think you'll be here much longer anyway."

Jack looked at her flatly and said in an even voice, "Good luck."

Without waiting for a reply, he passed by her and headed back up the stairs. He didn't have time for mortal kids making threats they couldn't follow through on. He had a possible witch attack to plan against.

**A/N:**

**Jack's really confused about how the descendants of his sweet little sister managed to turn out not one, but two, spawns of Satan. **

**We're reaching the climax very quickly. It feels really weird, like I only just started this story. Well, I guess I kind of did. It hasn't even been a month. This is the furthest I've ever gone on a multichapter story, plot-wise at least. I've never gotten close to finishing one before.**

**This chapter sort of gave big hints about what I'm planning for the end. What will happen? Oooh. I'm excited. I'm still trying to decide how many OCs to include, though. I know Chris, Amy, Oliver, and David will be included, but I'm still debating on Susan and Brianna. Any suggestions?**

**Reply time!**

**Silver-09: I CHOKED ON MY APPLE JUICE WHEN I READ THAT OHMYGOD DID YOU SERIOUSLY JUST MARRY ME AND STARSTREAKEDSKY. Wait I'm only sixteen. Whatever, I AM DYING. THANK YOU.**

**StarStreakedSky: Well, either way, according to Silver-09 we're married now. I don't suppose we couldn't just both be girls? If it really comes down to it, I can be a guy. Trust me; I can crossdress like a boss. **

**azwolfe: Oooh, I knew Miku was getting an English voicebank but I didn't know Kaito was getting one also. I dunno, I'll buy Miku if I really want to but I think I want to hold out for Gumi. Though if you ask me, the English voicebanks aren't that nice-sounding. You can make them sound so natural in Japanese. …Wait, how did we get on the topic of Vocaloid? Pfft. **

**MagicGold34: Aww, you're sweet. Thank you. Also, I am a big fan of Forever by NightFury812 :D Love that story. **

**karasu99: I would give you a proper answer, but…spoilers. Haha, it's a surprise! You'll see!**

**Percabethlvrknowsall: Why do you hate Eleven? I adore him. He's such a child. He's what I started the series with, actually (on accident, I swear. I would definitely have started with Nine if I had known any better, but I didn't, and now I'm a big Eleven fan). I'm in the middle of Ten now.**

**Uniquely X: Well, Jack's death is probably only really remembered by people who have done extensive research on the history of the town, so yeah, it is largely forgotten by the general populace.**

**Camelot Emrys: I imagine that Jack was probably just caught up in the euphoria of the moment, and then it hit him later that he had died and left Rosie behind, as well as never got to watch her grow up. That probably hit him pretty hard, and that's why he doesn't like to talk about it. **

**RandomKrazyPerson: You think you've had too much Mountain Dew? I weigh a grand total of 106 pounds and I just got done downing a liter of Coca-Cola in less than twenty minutes. It's midnight.**

**Luna Awesomesauce 1012: Why are you complaining about not getting a reply? You're literally my sister. All you have to do is call me or text me or something. **_**You are related to me**_**. That's luckier than anybody else, don't you think? Wait, you're probably complaining because I spoil you too much, I see. **

**readandwrite4evernever20: …Is your name Christina? Christerner, Toast, Inception, Barbie-Rice, school food, any of those words ringing a bell? Because I have a sneaking suspicion about you.**

**Thanks to chibiininja, snowflake 13300, AmaraRae, Angel-chan Desu, CelticGirl7, Eauingchun, Sapphire noodles, Citrine Griffin, khoathkeeper13, QuillOwl, LunaTheLoneWolf, VasHappeninTeam, cartoonsAREepic, Sympathy for the Lost Love, TeddyBear98, daughterofthehunt, hi, PuppetMaster55, Q-A the Authoress, Galaya, SilverEyeShinobi, Bookworm290, paracuties, Dragowolf, khoathkeeper13, galacticEntity, 62, Novanto, hellraven-ovo, Serendipital, Guest, Darkrystal Sky, 13NeverForget14, TheInsanityThatHidesWithin, Forever Frosted, LiviahEternal, and Alaia Skyhawk! **


	14. Chapter 14

Jack, in keeping with his promise, had told Jamie everything North told him. The two sat on Jamie's bed well into the night, speaking in low whispers as to not wake Chris and David. To his credit, the twelve-year-old understood what a serious situation this was.

"So do we tell Sophie about this?" he asked. "She'd want to know."

Jack was silent for a moment, thinking, before shaking his head. "No. I want to involve as few people as possible. I didn't even want to involve you, remember? There's no guarantee that Eve won't go after people I'm close to."

"Yeah, I guess." Jamie looked at the winter spirit apprehensively. "Jack, you're going to be okay, aren't you?"

"Huh?" Jack blinked, and then gave him a reassuring smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Of course I will. Have some faith in me, okay? No old crone is going to take me out." He stretched his arms. "Even if she came here, one of the other Guardians would be hot on her trail. I bet they wouldn't even let me do much fighting. I'm like their little kid."

Jamie laughed at the imagery, and cut off sharply when Chris stirred in his sleep.

"We should probably go to bed," he said, glancing at his alarm clock. It was three in the morning. "We'll have to wake up in a few hours anyway, though."

Jack waved a dismissive hand. "You go ahead and get some sleep. I'm going to stay awake."

"Why? All-nighters will mess you up."

"One, I don't feel like dreaming anything tonight. Two, I'm paranoid and don't want to get attacked in my sleep."

"I don't think that'll actually happen."

"Hey, I'm Jack Frost. I'm over three hundred years old. Weirder things have happened to me."

"…Okay, I guess that's true. Good night, then."

"You too."

**xXx**

It was around six-thirty when he heard people moving around downstairs. Jack had been lying in his sleeping bag, dully staring up at the ceiling whilst pondering his purpose in life and desperately wishing he was relaxing outside in a snowbank rather than a stuffy bedroom in a house filled with people. Now, he figured, if people were starting to wake up then he could go downstairs and pretend he had awoken early as well instead of staying awake the whole night.

He eased himself out of his sleeping bag and stepped across the room, expertly taking care not to step on any artifacts or persons. He safely made it outside and was about halfway down the stairs when he heard the voices.

Well, not so much voices as the sound of something slamming against a table. A split second later, Susan's voice rang out, "I thought I told you to leave him alone, Linda!"

Jack halted in his tracks, heart pounding. This was certainly unexpected.

"Well I'm sorry if I can't find it in me to trust a complete stranger, child or not," he heard Linda reply coldly. "A little research never hurt anybody."

"I didn't want to invade Jack's privacy and I thought I made it very clear that I didn't want you poking around either!" Susan sounded more furious than Jack had ever heard, and his stomach twisted in dread as he noticed they were talking about him.

"Susan, calm down, you'll wake the kids," Dan said calmly.

Susan seemed to ignore him and instead snapped scathingly, "So what? You go about invading the privacy of a poor boy that _never did anything_ to us, and what do you find? What sort of ridiculousness did you 'uncover'?"

"I'd be more than happy to tell you, if you cared to stop your screeching for a minute," Linda said in an icy tone.

Jack grinned when he heard Oliver's voice say mildly, "Quite a lot of animosity in here isn't there? I'm going to get some coffee." There was a scraping of a chair against the wood of the floor, followed by footsteps retreating into the kitchen, and then the women began speaking again.

"I don't want to hear it," Susan said. "Whatever you have against Jack, Linda, I want you to knock it off. He's done nothing to deserve this."

"I'm doing this for you," Linda retorted. "Believe it or not, I actually do care about you, Jamie and Sophie and can't help but be a little concerned about a random stranger who didn't even tell you how he ended up on the pond."

Susan sighed heavily and Jack envisioned her slumping down at the table, rubbing her eyes. "If I listen this one time, you have to promise to drop the subject and not bother Jack again. Can you do that?"

"Fine."

"Alright, then. Get it over with."

Jack heard Oliver reenter the room and the click of a laptop opening. This whole situation had taken a big turn for the worse; how was it that he had conveniently stopped by to eavesdrop at this exact time? His life was too full of unwelcome coincidences.

"I did a bit of digging through the town's residency records," Linda said. "I was looking for anyone with the last name of Overland, you know, trying to find out who his family might be."

"I'd get to the point if I were you," Oliver advised, and Jack could hear Susan's fingernails tapping against the table even from his spot on the stairs.

"Shut up," Linda snapped before continuing, "I didn't find any at all, not for the past fifty years, so I scrolled a bit more until I found it. There was an Overland family here in Burgess at one point, but the name died out in the mid-eighteenth century."

"That doesn't prove anything," Susan said. "The Overlands could have lived in another part of the state, even another part of the country."

"Except that Jack himself specifically said that he was from this town, didn't he?" Linda pointed out, and Jack resisted the urge to groan out loud. Why did the nosy people have to cling to every word he said?

There was a long pause, and then he heard Shannon prompt, "What else?"

"Well, here's where it gets interesting," Linda said briskly. "You remember the other night, when we were talking about the boy who drowned in the pond?"

"Yes, what of it?"

There was a creak as the woman leaned forward in her chair, and Jack strained to listen. "The residency records said that the Overland family included a boy named Jack, and he died in his teens by _drowning. _That's who it was."

There was a shocked silence, and then Oliver said quietly, "How did you find that out? I've studied the town myself and never even came across that."

"You clearly weren't looking hard enough," Linda sniffed. "You can find anything with a little solid research." Her voice pitched lower in an obvious attempt at sympathy. "Do you understand now, Susan? That Jack boy is lying about something big, be it his name, where he came from, or how he ended up here. If I were you, I'd get to the bottom of it before something happens that you regret."

Jack swallowed. He had heard enough. He stood and made his way back up the stairs, blocking out any reply someone might have made.

He really needed to get out of here, before it was too late.

**xXx**

Oliver leaned against the kitchen counter, tapping his fingers against the marble as the information Linda provided swirled around in his mind. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore, at least not in reference to Jack Overland. Oliver didn't believe that anything Linda had said was a falsehood. She thrived on being right, on dangling her superiority over everyone's head, so she always took care to properly do her research. It was one of the things that made her so worrisome.

Who was Jack, really? There apparently hadn't been an Overland in Burgess—or even the whole of Pennsylvania—for the last two hundred and fifty years. And if what Linda had said was true, and Oliver didn't doubt it was, then the boy who had fallen through the pond so long ago had been named Jack as well.

So what did that mean? Did the Jack he knew take the name as a cover? That was a possibility; homeless kids and runaways often lied about their names to evade the authorities. But why would he choose that name in particular, a name that had been so lost to time that only the most intensive of research could find it again? That evidence pointed to Jack being much smarter and resourceful than he let on, but most other runaways would make up a completely new name, not one that could be traced. They'd make up a person that didn't exist, and never had.

Oliver gripped the countertop, his knuckles white from the pressure. There were more questions he had, and they made even less sense in his mind.

Why had Jack asked him about magic? That was off the wall, even for a boy as seemingly scatterbrained as he was. Susan had said she found him lying on top of the pond, and the boy who drowned hundreds of years ago had been lost in the same spot. They had the same name, and even their ages matched up. Jack had started choking when they'd first brought up the drowned boy at the dinner table, and awkwardly stammered over his words when Oliver had asked him about it.

It was crazy, an absolutely insane theory that Oliver hated himself for coming up with, but…what if Jack and the boy who drowned were one and the same? That was impossible, really, but he couldn't stop himself from imagining the possibilities. How was he still alive? What had brought him back? His mind flashed back to the conversation with the boy the previous day.

"_Do you believe in magic?"_

"_Maybe not things like fairy tales but, as I teach mythology as well as history, I do like to believe that something was behind putting all the legends into place."_

"_Like what? Some kind of god?"_

Oliver liked to consider himself a smart and rational person, much more so than his older sister Linda. She knew how to do her research, but he was the one who had the ability to pull deductions from it. But none of this made sense, and now he was thinking of insane things like gods and boys who should be dead walking again.

He frowned. "Alright," he said softly, talking to himself as he was oft prone to do, "For just one minute, let's pretend that the legends are real. Let's pretend that you aren't losing your mind, that Jack isn't a completely normal boy with a bad case of amnesia, and what do you get?"

As long as he was pretending, he was free to imagine whatever he wanted. And right now, Oliver was imagining that Jack Overland had fallen through the ice centuries ago and been brought back by some sort of…deity or god. He didn't know why he had been brought back or why the boy had ended up in this house, with this family. Was there any sort of reason at all? What was his purpose?

Oliver sighed and glanced down at his empty coffee mug. "I need to lay off the caffeine."

There was nothing extraordinary about Jack. There couldn't be. Magic didn't exist, as much as Oliver wished otherwise. This was the real world, and he needed to start living in it. Jack was just a kid who had run away from his family or Social Services, and who had a nasty fall on the ice and hit his head, causing him to forget how he had gotten there. A good knock in the hippocampus would cause that well enough.

That was all.

Oliver told himself that, because it had to be true, but he just couldn't shake the feeling that something much bigger was going on.

He glanced up sharply as Susan entered the kitchen. His sister was obviously still upset at Linda's accusations, and it showed in her body movements. She borderline tossed a handful of empty mugs into the sink and forcefully blasted them with water from the faucet before turning to him.

"The kids are starting to wake up," she said with a forced smile. "Shall we start Christmas?"

Oliver nodded, not particularly feeling it either. "Sophie, Hunter, and Addie probably aren't in the mood to wait any longer. I don't want to be on the receiving end of their tantrum."

She chuckled softly. "Right. I bet one of them will come bursting in, squealing about how they saw Santa last night. It happens every year."

The two jumped violently as tiny Addison burst through the door, beaming. "Guess what I saw last night!"

** A/N:**

**I like writing Oliver-deductions. Hehe.**

**Where is everyone? I've been updating so fast and everyone is just like NOPE.**

**Anyway, reply time.**

**Camelot Emrys: Remember last chapter when North told Jack that he would send the yetis to kidnap him with the sack again if he had to? He wasn't kidding. If Jack wasn't back to normal by then, that's what would end up happening. If he was back to normal by then, then great.**

**Dragowolf: I can't tell you how he's going to get his powers back. That's like, the biggest spoiler of them all. And the dreams are his subconscious replaying the last time he was human. **

**Thoytsi: You give the absolute best reviews. I don't even know how to reply to them. I love you too, Catherine. And actually, you're right. I am carefully planning out every chapter. **

**Luna Awesomesauce 1012: I spoil you all the time, shut up. You're just so spoiled you don't even realize it's happening.**

**cartoonsAREepic: I wouldn't say Brianna believes in Santa. She heard Jack talking to someone, but I don't think she heard someone talk back. That's likely why she thinks he's crazy.**

**readandwrite4evernever20: Oh damn, I was wrong. Sorry, you just remind me a lot of my friend, and you have similar usernames too now that I think about it. **

**StarStreakedSky: Alrighty then. Wow, I have an internet wife. That's new. **

**Stormgirl415: I'm sure all the immortals are at least familiar with each other, so yeah, the other Guardians have run into Eve once or twice. **

**Thanks to Novanto, VasHappeninTeam, Alaia Skyhawk, Mystery Girl Who Writes, Citrine Griffin, TeddyBear98, SilverEyeShinobi, LightMyBulb, Q-A the Authoress, Sympathy for the Lost Love, 62, khoathkeeper13, azwolfe, AmaraRae, RandomKrazyPerson, and Lolxxx.**


	15. Chapter 15

If one thing could be said about the Bennett family and assorted others, it was that they knew how to orchestrate a Christmas. Once all the children had come bounding down the stairs, the adults managed to get control of the situation (the situation being four children under the age of ten plus Jamie and, oddly enough, Amy) and ushered the whole of the family into the living room. For the first time, they were all awake at the same time before noon.

Jack trailed behind the others, still troubled by what he had overheard that morning. He wanted to leave, to get out of there and take off running, but he couldn't with so many people around and knew he had nowhere to go even if he did. _Besides,_ he thought as he watched Jamie and Sophie bounce around excitedly with big grins on their faces, _there are good enough reasons to stay for the time being._

He frowned to himself. He knew his time in this house was coming to a close, especially if the adults were becoming suspicious. As much as he liked being able to spend so much time with Jamie and Sophie and as much as he was warming up to most of the others, he did have bigger things to worry about. If Eve did attack him sometime in the near future, Jack didn't want her to go after anyone in the house as well. Especially not one of the younger kids, who would likely be believers and thus able to see the autumn witch.

As the other children swarmed around the Christmas tree, having taken on the duty of passing out gifts, Jack settled down cross-legged into an armchair still lost in thought.

Today was the twenty-fifth, obviously, so when he thought about it there was only one more day before he did have to leave. Jack fully believed North when the latter said he would send the yetis after him to bring him back up to the Pole. The Guardians always had their Christmas celebration on the twenty-seventh, because the twenty-fifth was still a busy day for North and the twenty-sixth was his crashing day afterwards. His one rule was that nobody skipped out on the celebration no matter what the circumstances, which peeved Bunnymund off to no end and somewhat amused the others. He smiled at the memories of the many arguments that had gone down between North and Bunny regarding the matter.

Jack glanced up as Jamie crossed into his field of vision, holding something behind his back. He perched himself on the arm of Jack's chair and handed him an envelope.

"This was under the tree," he said quietly. "With all the presents from Santa."

"Funny how I didn't see that last night," Jack replied, examining the writing. His name, written as _Jack Frost_ in elegant gold font, was emblazoned on the back with a tiny drawing of a snowglobe underneath. "It's definitely from North. Must have been buried when I moved everything. Thanks, kid."

Jamie nodded and Jack slipped the envelope into his hoodie pocket. "I figured it was better than someone else seeing it, and brought it over. 'Cause it's got a different name on it and all."

"That was good thinking." Jack felt a chill run down his spine and he looked around the room with the unpleasant feeling of being watched. Across the room, leaning against the wall, he saw Linda giving him a venomous stare. Without taking his eyes off the woman, he nudged Jamie, "Why don't you go open presents with the other kids? I'm going to hang out here."

Jamie seemed confused until he saw where Jack was looking, and swallowed with a nod. "Okay. Be careful, Amy says she's pretty sure Aunt Linda was spawned from venomous frog eggs."

"I don't even know what that means."

"Neither do I, but it sounds scary."

"…Go open presents."

Jamie nodded again and stood to rejoin his family. Jack sighed and leaned back in his armchair, closing his eyes just after seeing Linda begin to make her way towards him. This was it, he reckoned; she was going to confront him about everything she had found out. He had to hand it to her; the woman was a regular Sherlock Holmes. Just a bit nastier. Jack wondered how he was going to lie his way out of her accusations. Linda did have a pretty substantial argument.

He felt someone sit down on the arm where Jamie had been sitting and, suppressing a groan, he opened his eyes to look his opponent in the face. To his surprise, it wasn't Linda.

It was Susan.

"Merry Christmas," she said with a small smile.

"You too," Jack answered. She looked so weary and uncertain that, not for the first time, Jack felt a pang of guilt in his chest for what he was doing to her. "Why aren't you with the others?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"Well…" Jack's breath rushed out. "I'm not really a part of the family, am I? You are, so I don't really get why you'd want to be here on the other side of the room with me."

Susan bit her lower lip. "You heard everything we were talking about this morning. Everything my sister said about you."

He stared up at her. That was unexpected. Well, as long as she knew he'd been listening, there was no point in lying about it. "How…did you know?"

She tapped her head. "It's a mother's intuition. You would believe how often I catch Jamie and Sophie creeping around."

Jack laughed hollowly. "I'll have to take your word for that."

"I'm sorry," Susan said. "I told Linda I didn't want her prying. She just doesn't listen, and…"

Jack shook his head and interrupted. "She has a point. You've never really had any reason to trust me. I've kept a lot of important things from you and your family, and you don't deserve that. You pretty much have every right to kick me out."

"I'm not going to do that, no matter what Linda says," Susan replied loftily. "There are a lot of things you've hidden, no doubt about that, but I don't believe it's anything so serious that you deserve to be turned out into the streets. Someday soon, yes, maybe I'll require some sort of explanation, but for right now…" She sighed heavily and reached behind her, pulling out a box wrapped in white paper that Jack hadn't noticed before. "For right now, it's Christmas."

Susan passed the box to Jack, who hesitated before taking it. It was fairly large, rectangular in shape, and noticeably heavy. He set it on his lap and stared at it.

"No card, sorry," Susan said. "I planned to give it to you in person from the start. Well, go ahead and open it."

Jack obliged, slowly peeling off the wrapping paper and removing the lid, and then reached in and pulled out a mass of dark blue fabric.

It was a jacket, made of light but smooth and sturdy material with fur trim around the hood. It looked long enough to go down to his thighs. Jack gaped at it dumbly, unable to find any words.

"It's… Well." Susan took a deep breath. "In case you ever feel the need to go out, walk around. Go somewhere else. All you ever seem to have is that hoodie, and it doesn't look very warm. I bought this the other day. Is it all right?"

Jack couldn't say anything. His breath hitched in his throat and he swallowed the lump in his throat. He knew he should thank her. That's what she deserved. But all he managed was to choke out, "Why do you care so much?"

Susan, for her part, didn't even seem fazed by the question. She just smiled and said, "Why, indeed…" She stood and smoothed a crease in her sweater. "Breakfast is almost ready. It looks like everyone's already gone to get it. Are you coming?"

"In…in a minute."

She looked at him with an expression he couldn't define, then turned and walked away.

After she left, Jack slumped down in his chair, the jacket spread limply across his lap. That woman was a complete mystery. He wasn't even a part of her family and yet… Well, he technically was, but she still didn't know that. He glanced down at the lump of blue fabric, and came to a decision in a split-second.

As soon as the rest of the family had gone home, he'd tell her about himself. Everything. Even if she didn't believe him, and she likely wouldn't, it would make him feel better knowing he'd at least told her the truth. Jamie and Sophie would probably be more than willing to help as well. Susan might listen to members of her own family more than she would him.

Speaking of family…

Jack absently pulled the envelope from North out from his hoodie, making sure that everybody else had gone into the kitchen. He slid his finger under the seal, opening it, and pulled out the paper inside. It was a card, and when he opened it he saw signatures from the four other Guardians.

_Twenty-seventh. Don't make me use the sack_. –North

Jack snorted. "Merry Christmas to you too," he muttered before reading on.

_Hang in there, Jack! We'll see you soon, Merry Christmas!_ _Baby Tooth misses you, we all do, and don't forget to floss._ –Tooth

_You are a massive pain in the neck, more trouble than you're worth, and you have my permission to cover the world in blizzards once you're back to normal._ –Bunny

As for Sandy, he hadn't signed, and instead drawn a silhouette of himself next to a snowflake in the same golden ink used to write Jack's name on the envelope.

Jack smiled to himself, lightly tracing his fingers over every signature. They were thinking about him, and watching out for him. Sure, he'd known that for a while, but having confirmation of the fact that he was no longer alone in the world always left him a bit breathless.

Feeling slightly better, he pocketed the card again and stood to join the family in the kitchen.

**A/N:**

**Oh look. Filler. Sorry for the short/pointless chapter, guys. Finals are killing me. Luckily I only have one more tomorrow before it's all over.**

**So Rise of the Guardians didn't win the Golden Globe. They gave it to Brave. Fuckers. I mean, I love Brave to death, but… ugh. It could have at **_**least**_** gone to Wreck-It Ralph or something. This is why I don't watch award shows, they depress me. I bet Brave won just for Merida's glorious hair. **

**On the upside, I got over sixty reviews on the last chapter. I love you people so much. **

**Reply time!**

**chibiininja: Well, Linda and Brianna were intentionally created to be stuck-up and unlikeable :D So, really, it's all according to plan if people hate them. And, judging from the comments on them, everyone does. Excellent. **

**StarStreakedSky: It's funny, I said I would probably update slower because of my finals this week but nothing's actually changed. Meh, the only final I really need to worry about is Geometry but that's not until Thursday. I have a pretty laid-back schedule this year.**

**UnitedKingdomrules: I don't actually sacrifice that much for this fic, believe it or not, unless you count a couple hours of sleep each night. I have a free period during school that I use to get all my homework done so when I get home I have like eight hours of free time. **

**khoathkeeper13: It's funny because I've actually read a lot about Jack the Ripper. No, Linda probably doesn't expect Jack to go around ripping out ladies' internal organs (ohMYGOD **_**Jack**_** the Ripper!), she probably just sort of expects him to steal things and skip down, or go crazy and get destructive. Something like that. **

**Myaerdna: Doctor Who is actually British XD You should try to check it out though, if only for Matt Smith's butt—*COUGH* J-just for how amazing it is.**

**Darkrystal Sky: Besides the cover art and a few sketches, I haven't really gotten any fan art, no. I am certainly going to share it when/if I get any, though :D**

**HarmonySoundown: Addison/Addie is a girl, though.**

**Luna Awesomesauce 1012: If you're a god, I'm a supreme god, because I'm the older sister here. You are a child. Also I have my own fanbase, and if you have a legit amount of followers they can technically be counted as a religion. So, I win. **

**Thanks to hi, sonicxjones, flowerpower71, MagicGold34, AlwaysGriffindor13, Lindyn Guards, bedstories, LightMyBulb, Aurum, Q-A the Authoress, Thoytsi, RandomKrazyPerson, Mystery Girl Who Writes, AmaraRae, Citrine Griffin, daughterofthehunt, readandwrite4evernever20, galacticEntity, Lolxxx, PuppetMaster55, Sapphire noodles, art chic 99, Sympathy for the Lost Love, hisokauzumaki, azwolfe, LiviahEternal, Alaia Skyhawk, Denri, Camelot Emrys, Guest, JuleBeilschmidt, farfetched4, feathered moon wings, VasHappeninTeam, EpicDetour9, Faceless Echo, Sunny Lighter, TeddyBear98, Lady Loralye, OtakuAme, Midnight Glider, megadracosaurus, QuillOwl, Gamma Cavy, DeimosPhobos, SaltSweet, hellraven-ovo, Ironic-Sarcasm, ZeroLuver567, SilverEyeShinobi, GhostGirl58, Eauingchun, Blah, Moonstar Daughter of Hades, Guest #2, Dragowolf, Serendipital, LadyKnight21, and Yami's Devil.**

**Right, I'm going to go suck on some Vitamin C tablets and eat things that will give me nightmares. See you guys later.**


	16. Chapter 16

The crowd in the kitchen appeared to have dispersed by the time Jack got in there, the members of the family having already gotten their food and spread to various areas of the house. Only Chelsea, Linda, and Dan were in the kitchen, and when Jack walked in he could hear Linda's shrill voice nagging her daughter about something.

"Don't you talk to any kids at school?" she asked Chelsea, who had her finger stuck in a book to keep her place. Her eyes were downcast, looking anywhere but her mother. "You never have any friends over, and I'm beginning to wonder if you even have any; you don't even talk to our own family. Dear, I'm worried that all this reading is ruining your chance at a social life. What if—"

Linda cut off abruptly and her sharp eyes zeroed in on Jack, who involuntarily halted in his tracks. Dan looked between the two of them, sensing the tension, and had the good idea to get out of the kitchen before hell broke loose. He grabbed his orange juice and hurried out the door. Jack, though feeling no need to get any closer to her, remembered the overheard conversation between Linda and Susan and recalled that the blonde woman had promised not to say anything to him if Susan listened to her accusations. He was safe, for the time being.

After a few seconds of intense glaring at the winter spirit, Linda shook her hair back and stiffly said to Chelsea, "We're not done talking about this." At that, she stalked across the room and through the door, sending Jack a suspicious, narrow-eyed look as she went.

As soon as she was gone, Jack let out a low whistle. "Jeez. Talk about intense." He plopped down at the small kitchen table near Chelsea, who hadn't moved.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly."

Jack blinked. "What for?"

"That you had to see that. She does it all the time."

He shook his head. "You've got nothing to apologize for. It's not your fault."

Chelsea didn't answer, and the Guardian side of Jack flared up as he looked at a young girl who clearly needed his help. Or at least some cheering up. He looked from her morose face to the thick volume she held in her hand and smiled.

"What's that you're reading?" he asked, gesturing to the book. "You seem really into it whenever I see you."

She hesitated, and then held it up so he could see the cover. "It's called Les Misérables. I got it as an early Christmas present from Uncle Oliver a couple days ago. I'm about halfway through," she added with a thin strain of pride.

"It's huge," Jack commented, impressed. "And it looks complicated. How old are you?"

"Eleven."

"Well," he replied, leaning back. "I have no idea what your mom is talking about, then. She's got nothing to be worried about, because judging by the way you're plowing through it, you're absolutely brilliant. I wouldn't let what anyone says bother you." He flashed her a grin, and after a moment of clear surprise, she returned it.

"Thank you. She's wrong about you, too. You're really nice. I don't think you're going to rob us in our sleep."

Jack choked. "She said what about me?!"

Chelsea shrugged and swept a lock of chin-length hair behind her ear. "Yeah. She tends to say things like that about homeless people. She assumes they're all robbers, but that's just all of Dad's money going to her head. It doesn't matter if it's you or an old guy on the street. If someone doesn't have a proper place to live, they're dirt under her shoe. It's ridiculous." She adjusted her glasses and cracked her book open again.

"Besides," she added offhandedly. "You're not homeless. You're here."

Jack sat back and examined the girl briefly while she read. Chelsea was sharp, seemingly more so than her parents and siblings, observant, and bluntly honest in a way that was endearing. Despite all that, she still let her mother's harsh words get under her skin? That must be a testament to just how much effect Linda had on those around her. Jack was glad he'd managed to help the girl feel at least a little better.

"You're right," he said thoughtfully. "I am here."

He propped his chin up on his elbow and looked out the kitchen window just as a green blur whizzed past. Jack's hand slipped and he sat up sharply. Chelsea glanced up, "You alright?"

"Fine, fine," he answered breathlessly. "Just a little… I'm going outside for a minute."

Not even bothering with shoes, he bolted out the back door and into the snow-covered yard, looking around for whatever the blur could have been. It probably wasn't a bird, not at this time of year, so what…? His unspoken question was answered as a tiny, feathery ball came hurtling towards him, smacking into his chest. Jack held out his hands and it flopped down into it, unfurling its wings and blinking up with mismatched eyes.

"Baby Tooth!" he exclaimed. The fairy grinned and waved. "What are you doing here? I'd have thought you'd be at the Tooth Palace doing your job."

Baby Tooth shook her head, pointing at Jack.

"You're…here for me?"

A nod.

"Why?" he asked. "North said that everyone was already on the lookout for Eve, and that at least one of the other Guardians would be close to me if anything happened."

Tooth's message on his Christmas card flashed through his mind: _Baby Tooth misses you, we all do…_

Jack huffed. "They're a lot more worried about me than they let on, aren't they?" Baby Tooth nodded again and flew up to nuzzle against his face. He stroked the top of her head and said, "So what are you going to do? Did your mom tell you to just check up on me, so you have to go back?"

She dropped onto his shoulder and latched onto his hoodie, getting a laugh out of the winter spirit. "Alright then. I take that to mean you're sticking around. It's pretty cold, you want to head inside? I doubt many people in there would be able to see you, because they're mostly teenagers and adults."

Baby Tooth nodded and settled in, and Jack turned to head into the house. Jack frowned to himself as they went. Baby Tooth wasn't there just to check on him, and she wasn't sticking around just because she felt like it. Jack wasn't so naïve that he could easily believe that. No, there was another purpose for her staying with him. Not that he minded, of course; Jack could easily count the little fairy among his closest friends, for reasons only the two of them really knew, but he couldn't dispel the feeling of worry twisting in his stomach.

Baby Tooth, true to fairy form, was very quick and difficult to spot once she got going. Speed like that would make a perfect agent for reconnaissance, or a messenger. That was why she was here. The others thought he needed her, in case anything happened and he needed to get help quick. That had to be it. They were so worried they sent him extra help.

Which meant Eve was closer than he thought.

Jack repressed the urge to swear and kick something. Why was she so against him? Why all the stalking, and anxiety, and all those other things? Hadn't she gotten what she wanted, the expulsion of his powers? One accidental blizzard wasn't enough to warrant being creeped on and possibly attacked for, was it?

Apparently it was. Jack sighed resignedly and stepped back into the house, Baby Tooth snuggling down further in his hood. Her presence did grant him a bit of relief. If he had to, he could send her to get help in the event Eve showed up again. He didn't know why she would show up again, but the threat was very real and he appreciated just how much he was being watched over, even if he wouldn't admit it out loud.

**A/N:**

**It's been cut in half, I'm so sorry. I had my last final today and I was so tired when it was done (geometry fries my braaaiiin. This is pathetic; I'm a junior in the sophomore class and it still kills me) that when I got home I promptly crashed and this was all I managed to write. **

**HOWEVER. On the other side of things, my finals are now over with! That means I can get back to my 2000-word chapters!**

**Guys. Guys. I just realized. Not only do I have an Eleventh Doctor here in this story, I also have a redhead named Amy/Amelia. That wasn't even on purpose, I swear. I started this story before I got into Doctor Who. **

**Citrine Griffin: OOOOH! Can I see? :D**

**QuillOwl: That shouldn't be a joke, because it's actually pretty accurate… *slides away sneakily***

**Stormgirl415: Eve is a little more sinister than a lady who chucks candy at kids but that's because, to me, the concept of Halloween is a bit frightening and I want to portray that. **

**Luna Awesomesauce 1012: Of course people like you, don't play that card with me. You are adorable.**

**Thanks to readandwrite4evernever20, hellraven-ovo, Q-A the Authoress, Adrianna, OctoberThirtyFirst, StarStreakedSky, VasHappeninTeam, Aurum, Guest, Guest #2, KarToon12, Mystery Girl Who Writes, OtakuAme, purplepanda0822, azwolfe, RandomKrazyPerson, TeddyBear98, Alaia Skyhawk, derppypants, Alluring Alliteration, Angel-chan Desu, Lolxxx, Emcee Bean, Dragowolf, Camelot Emrys, EmperialGem21, SilverEyeShinobi, Forever Frosted, Serendipital, khoathkeeper13, and GhostGirl58.**

**So close to the climax…I'm so excited…**


	17. Chapter 17

It seemed that everyone—everyone being Jamie, Sophie, Chris, Amy, David, Chelsea, and a very sullen Brianna—had piled into Jamie's room. Jack was barely noticed when he walked in and situated himself next to Jamie, who spotted Baby Tooth almost immediately. He opened his mouth to ask, but Jack cut him off.

"Don't say anything about her too loud," he whispered. "She's going to be hanging around here for a bit. Is that okay?"

Jamie nodded and leaned over to whisper the message to Sophie, whose face lit up and she gave the fairy a little wave, which Baby Tooth returned.

"…I'm glad Aunt Shannon really knows how to shop for me," Amy was saying when the three of them tuned back in to the conversation. "She and Aunt Susan are the only ones who really get what I want." She sighed. "Even my own mother couldn't buy me a decent gift if she tried."

"That's a pretty ungrateful thing to say," Brianna sniffed. "If you ask me, Aunt Linda gives better gifts than anyone."

"Yeah, well, we didn't ask you, did we?" Amy shot back, narrowing her eyes. "And who are you to talk about ungrateful? You shoved everyone else's presents aside as soon as you unwrapped them."

Sensing a coming storm, Chris interrupted with, "What did everyone get, exactly? I didn't really see, it was chaotic in there."

Sophie held up a stuffed rabbit with a bright smile. "I got a rabbit!"

"That's great!" Amy ruffled her hair. "Does it have a name?"

"Aster," the little girl said matter-of-factly. Jack glanced at Jamie and both suppressed a snort of amusement. Bunnymund would get a kick out of that. At least it would provide teasing material for the winter spirit whenever needed.

"I just got a bunch of clothes, really," David said. "I guess I wasn't really specific about what I wanted this year."

"Same here, but I also got some new equipment, which is great," Chris replied. "I've been needing some new stuff for basketball. What about you, Bri?"

"What do you think?" the girl snapped, flipping open her cellphone once more. "Isn't it obvious?"

"Lingerie~" Amy sang in a melodic voice. Brianna looked as though she was resisting the urge to throw something at her older cousin.

Baby Tooth gave Jack an incredulous look, and he shrugged. "Just how they are," he said in the quietest whisper he could summon. The fairy rolled her eyes. She was glad he wasn't like any normal teenager; she probably wouldn't want to be around a Jack who acted like…well, the snotty girl with the brown hair. He did have his snarky moments, but they were more of an endearing defense mechanism and Baby Tooth couldn't imagine what it would feel like to not want to be around him the way she didn't want to be around that girl. Jack was her favorite person, aside from Tooth.

Chelsea, far too used to these altercations between her sister and cousin, rolled her eyes and continued reading.

"What'd you get, kid?" Jack asked Jamie with a smile, effectively breaking off the argument with his interruption. "Anything good?"

Jamie grinned. "A bunch of alien books and some stuff on ghosts and Bigfoot. I'm really excited to read them."

"You're really into that stuff, aren't you?" Amy commented. "What are you going to do if they aren't real?"

"They are real," Jamie frowned. "Aliens and Bigfoot are real, right Jack?"

"Ah…" Jack hesitated as all eyes were suddenly on him. "Well… I don't know about aliens, but Bigfoot is definitely real. He's a yeti though, not a sasquatch."

Chris, Amy, and David burst into laughter.

"You're so weird," Amy snickered.

"I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but do you actually believe that? No offense, Jamie." Chris straightened up and took several deep breaths to calm himself. "Sorry, I stopped believing in that stuff a long time ago."

"None taken," Jamie replied. "You just don't believe because you're a teenager."

"Yeah, but you're twelve," David pointed out. "Won't you eventually stop believing in that kind of thing?"

"No," the younger boy answered without hesitation.

"Me neither," Sophie chipped in. "The Easter Bunny's real. So's Santa and the Tooth Fairy, too."

"And the Sandman," Jamie added. "And…" He spared a sideways glance towards Jack, who now had Baby Tooth sitting on his brown head like it was some kind of throne. "And Jack Frost. He's real too."

"Jack Frost, huh?" Chris frowned in thought. "I've never heard of anyone believing in him. Kids usually believe in Santa and the Tooth Fairy, but not some old guy who makes it snow."

"Old guy?" Jack couldn't resist raising his eyebrows and cutting in when he heard that. "Whoever said Jack Frost was an old guy? There's no proof of that; I don't even think I've heard legends like it."

What kind of image did he_ have? _By human standards he was certainly very, very old, but when it came to the immortal entities Jack was one of the youngest. He even looked it; none of the others he had met looked any younger than twenty-three, at the very least. His own seventeen stood out among them.

On his head, he could feel Baby Tooth shaking with silent laughter.

"I think you kids are thinking of Old Man Winter," a new voice suddenly said from the doorway. Of course it was Oliver, who apparently had the habit of listening in on conversations before joining them himself. After an indignant "Don't creep on kids!" from Amelia, he continued what he was saying.

"Jack Frost is seen as a variation of Old Man Winter, but they're actually two different legends." Oliver seemed to have his lecture voice on. "People often depict Jack Frost as an old man because he's a variation of Old Man Winter, but for the most part he's seen as a sprite around the age of a young adult or a teen—" He broke off suddenly as though struck by a moment of clarity, and he gave Jack a very odd look.

The winter spirit's heart faltered. Why was Oliver looking at him like that? An even more disturbing thought: How much did Oliver know about him?

Oliver's eyes traveled to Jack's face. Rather, to a spot just above the boy's head, where Baby Tooth was currently perched and observing him curiously. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

The tense, unsettling silence was broken by Brianna, of all people.

"Hey, Uncle Oliver?" she said, waving her hand in front of his face. "Stop zoning out. You look like you're having a stroke."

Oliver blinked, coming back to himself and tearing his gaze away from the very uncomfortable Jack. "Oh…sorry. I thought…"

"Thought what?" David prompted. The man shook his head.

"I just thought I saw something. My eyes were playing tricks on me." He grinned sheepishly. "Sorry for just busting in here, kids. I heard you talking about myths and just had to jump in." With a laugh, he added, "I'm going to get back to the real world now. See you later."

Without another word, Oliver turned and headed down the stairs, leaving a room of very confused relatives behind.

"…What was that all about?" Amy wondered aloud.

Nobody answered her, Jack least of all. He was more confused about Oliver's strange behavior than anyone else.

_He knows,_ a voice at the back of his mind whispered.

_No he doesn't,_ Jack told himself. _How could he?_

Well, now that he thought about it, Jack realized he had dropped a lot of clues, such as asking Oliver about magic and things like that. But he had never gone into specifics. He'd never said anything that had suggested he was Jack Frost, or even anything mythical. But Oliver was clever, he remembered, and was open to thinking about the supernatural. With what he knew about Jack himself, the clues about magic, and the conversation about Jack Frost that had just transpired, how much had Oliver pieced together? If he hadn't arrived at the correct answer yet, how long would it be until he did?

And had he seen Baby Tooth? He'd seemed to look right at her, as though he thought something was there but couldn't quite get a handle on it. Oliver would have to believe in her to fully see her, and he'd outright said that he didn't believe in magical things to the fullest. Maybe he believed just enough to think there was something on Jack's shoulder.

Jack sighed. Things were getting far too complicated for his liking. The adults were getting too suspicious, Oliver even more so, and for a moment the winter spirit wished that Eve would show up right then so he could get his powers back and get the hell out of there.

**xXx**

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, for Christmas. After all the presents were open, everybody pretty much left each other to their own devices and went about their usual business. After a while, Jack was able to put the disturbing thoughts of that morning out of his mind and simply enjoy spending time with Jamie and Sophie, who both eagerly showed him what they had received for Christmas. Besides that, Amy had gotten a pile of old video games and roped everyone over the age of ten into playing them with her. Jack, having never played any before, was absolutely terrible at them and got wiped out constantly by his younger relatives.

Jack was exhausted by the time they all decided to go to bed. His all-nighter Christmas Eve as well as all the revelations that had taken place during the day was now taking its toll on him, and he knew he was going to fall asleep. He didn't want to; he knew he would dream again, and he knew what was coming on this particular night.

He would see his death.

Though he had largely gotten over the trauma of realizing that he had died and his subsequent fear of drowning, the topic of Jack's death was still a sore one that he didn't like talking about. The Guardians all knew what had happened to him and also knew not to bring it up. Living it once had been bad enough, seeing it replay in his memories the first time had been worse. And now this.

There was no avoiding it, however. Jack slid into his sleeping bag with a feeling of dread and Baby Tooth snuggled in next to his pillow. Her presence granted him some relief, and he was out within moments.

**xXx**

_Another sound of the ice cracking rang through the clearing, and Jack flinched. If he didn't do anything soon, he was going to lose his sister. He knew for a fact that he would not be able to live with himself if he allowed that to happen. He had to save her._

"_Jack," she gasped, "I'm scared!"_

_He hated the terror in her voice. _

"_I know, I know," he said, forcing a smile, "Don't look down, just look at me. You're going to be fine. we're going to have a little fun instead."_

"_No we're not!" Rosie insisted, tears welling up in her eyes._

"_Would I trick you?" He willed humor into his tone. Anything to get her to stop looking so scared. He had to distract her._

"_Yes! You always play tricks!" Rosie answered. _

"_Well, not this time. I promise, I promise. You're going to be fine. You just…" Jack took a deep breath and reached his hand out to his sister, though he knew she was too far to grab it. He looked down and noticed a long, curved stick. It had probably fallen from one of the trees overhead, or maybe a shepherd or traveler had left it while passing through the area. Wherever it had come from, it gave Jack an idea. A small smile crossed his face. This just might work._

_He looked back to Rosie, "You just have to believe in me."_

_She heard the genuine optimism in his voice and her eyes widened with a glimmer of hope. She didn't reply and whimpered when a few more cracks appeared under her skates._

"_You want to play a game?" Jack asked. "Let's play hopscotch, like we do every day. It's as simple as one…" He took one wide step to the side, "Two…" The ice groaned and he flailed comically to take Rosie's mind off it, succeeding in making her giggle nervously. "Three!" _

_With one final leap, he was safe on the solid ice. He bent down and scooped up the curved stick. It fit perfectly in his hands and, more importantly, little Rosie would fit in the crook. _

"_Okay," Jack said, "Now it's your turn."_

_Rosie took a hesitant step forward, and bit back a scream when the ice threatened to give way. She gasped sharply and looked to her brother for help._

"_It's okay, you're doing great! Keep going!"_

_Rosie made three tiny steps' progress, her brother coaxing her forward. As soon as she was near enough, Jack reached the staff towards her. A few agonizing moments later, he had her hooked into the curved end and was pulling her towards safety. With one final wrench, he flung the little girl onto the solid ice. The momentum sent him flying and sliding to where Rosie had been standing, splayed on the unstable surface._

_Rosie blinked a few times, surprised at the sudden change of position. She looked at Jack, smiling happily. He easily returned the expression, laughing disbelievingly at his victory, and moved to stand up._

_The loudest crack yet sounded out, echoing through the trees, and before either of the siblings had a chance to react the ice collapsed, taking Jack with it._

_The last thing he heard before the frigid water numbed his senses was the horrible sound of Rosie screaming his name, and the last thing he saw before the darkness was her futilely reaching out towards him. _

_Then everything went pitch black. _

**xXx**

Sophie stretched and yawned as she exited her room around midnight. She had woken upin her bed feeling uncomfortably parched, and was on her way to the kitchen to get a glass of water. She tiptoed down the hall, avoiding the spots where the floor creaked, and quietly went down the stairs and into the kitchen. She flicked on the kitchen light, squinting in the sudden brightness, and pulled a glass out of the cupboard. Sophie filled it with water and began gulping it down, looking around aimlessly as she did so.

Something flashed outside, and the little girl nearly choked in surprise. She set her glass down and walked over to the window, peering out. It was probably just a car, but why would they be out so late? The light flashed again and she stuck her head out the window, frowning. A rustle in the trees caught her attention, and Sophie looked up to a tree in the yard.

A medium-sized shadow thing was sitting on one of the branches, and her first thought was that it was an owl before it hit her that no owl was that big. Focusing harder, Sophie could only just make out the shape of colorless eyes gleaming in the darkness, watching her, and the figure leaned forward.

The moonlight shone on the grotesque face of an old woman, and her flat line of a mouth twisted into a wicked, rotting grin.

**A/N:**

**Me being too lazy to rewrite the entire death scene and just copying bits from my Safe and Sound oneshot because I can't be bothered to completely rephrase the whole thing.**

**If anyone's confused about Sophie naming her rabbit Aster, in the books Bunnymund's full name is E. Aster Bunnymund. E. Aster. Easter. Hehe. **

**Speaking of Sophie, guess who just showed up and is staring at her. Right. Now. Ooooo. **

**Thoytsi: You people are weak! Here in Montana we plow through three feet of snow to get to school AND WE LIKE IT. Okay maybe we bitch about it more than necessary but we still do it! Snow days are nonexistent over here. "You get snowed in? That sucks. Dig yourself out and come to school."**

**Saturns-Moon: Linda will get something coming to her, don't worry. **

**FrostBitten Snowdrift: Because…I'm bad at math? At my place, when you start high school you can take a class called Pre-Algebra, which is basically a repeat of eighth grade math for those who struggle with it. You take that as a freshman, then as a sophomore you go to the normal math class for high schoolers, Algebra. Then when you're a junior you're in the sophomore class, Geometry, and so on. **

**Aurum: Yes, the cosmos predetermined that I would become a Whovian. I'm pretty on-board with this theory. **

**TeddyBear98: Yeah, my finals were Tuesday through Thursday. We didn't have school today, Friday, so that's technically the majority of the week.**

**Thanks to Lolxxx, GhostGirl58, Harmony Soundown, Dragowolf, Alaia Skyhawk, megadracosaurus, hi, feathered moon wings, paracuties, SilverEyeShinobi, galacticEntity, Forever Frosted, EmperialGem21, Q-A the Authoress, daughterofthehunt, snow bunny rabbit, VasHappeninTeam, Camelot Emrys, TheInsanityThatHidesWithin, Lindyn Guards, Uniquely X, purplepanda0822, Silver-09, RandomKrazyPerson, Skifazoa, azwolfe, StarStreakedSky, readandwrite4evernever20, Yami's Devil, SkyHighFan, Lady Isaiah, snowflake13300, Moonstar Daughter of Hades, Hummingbird101, Eauingchun, and Citrine Griffin.**

**As of right now, the climax has begun.**


	18. Chapter 18

Jack had expected not to wake up until late morning, as that seemed to be the norm whenever he dreamt about his past. However, when he stirred awake it seemed to still be late at night. He was dimly aware of the sound of a lightswitch being flicked on, a sudden brightness, and the sensation of being stepped on. He groaned as the pressure on him lifted and, still groggy, cracked his eyes open, squinting in the light. He wasn't the only one; he could hear Jamie, Chris, and David doing the same.

"Wake up!" he heard a girl's voice whisper frantically. "Jamie, wake up!"

"Sophie?" her brother mumbled, "what is it?"

"I saw something outside!"

Jack sat up, Baby Tooth clinging to his sleeve and rubbing her eyes as he did so. "Soph, what's wrong? Is there a problem?"

Sophie, who was sitting on Jamie's bed shaking his shoulder, looked down at him with a panicked expression. "I went downstairs to get water I was in the kitchen and I looked outside and there was someone staring at me!"

"You sure it wasn't a bad dream?" Chris asked, yawning. "It is pretty late."

She shook her head, blonde tangles flying. "I swear! I was totally awake! There's a person outside looking in here!"

"What kind of person?" Jamie pressed.

There was a knock on the door, making them all jump, and Oliver stepped in. "I heard someone pounding on the stairs, what's the matter? You should all be asleep."

"Sophie had a nightmare," David mumbled.

"I did not!" the little girl insisted. "I really did see someone!"

"Again, what kind of person?" Jamie repeated, putting an arm around his sister. "It can't be that bad. You're sure it wasn't a bad dream?"

She shuddered. "They looked like something you would have nightmares about. Um… I think it was a lady, and she was pretty old with black hair. And she didn't have a lot of teeth."

Jack froze. _Oh no._ Was it…? Judging from the description, it was. But what would she be doing here? He shook himself. It was only a matter of time before Eve showed up, he'd known that for a while, but he wasn't expecting her so soon!

"Sophie," he said in a shaking voice, "What was she wearing, exactly?"

"Hm? I couldn't really tell in the dark. It kind of looked like an old dress, I think."

He dropped his head into his hands. "Oh God."

"Jack, what is it? Do you know someone like that?" Chris asked, confused.

"Wait…" Jamie's eyes widened in realization. "Jack, is it that person who…?" He trailed off as Jack nodded at him silently. "…That's bad."

"Yes it is."

"Do you mind explaining?" Oliver quipped, leaning against the door frame.

Chris raised his hand. "Yeah, that would be great. I'm totally lost."

"Can't right now, sorry," Jack muttered, too deep in thought to hold up a substantial conversation. Eve was out there. Looking for him. His brown eyes scanned the room in worry. Rushing out there would probably be the second dumbest decision of his life (the first being letting Pitch distract him on Easter four years prior), but what else could he do? If he stayed inside, there was too high of a chance that Eve would go after the people in the house.

But if he ran outside, the people around him would likely follow, thinking he was a total nutcase. So not only would he be at Eve's total mercy, unable to use his powers, the people around him were still in danger. Neither option was a good one.

On the other hand, if he did go outside, he had a higher chance of sending Baby Tooth off to the Guardians to get help as well as try and get his powers back from the witch. And, well, that was just too enticing to give up. If he had to put people in danger, he might as well pick the route that had the highest probability of success. Jack straightened his hoodie, his mind firmly made up, and turned to face the others.

"There's probably no point in saying this, but please stay in here," he said calmly. "I'm going outside to see what it is."

"Uh, Jack?" Jamie said, "That might be a bad idea considering what happened, uh, last time…" He gestured weakly to the winter spirit, who grinned. He was suddenly grateful that he had picked up the habit of sleeping in whatever clothes he had worn that day. It meant he didn't have to take the time to change before running off.

"I've already thought about it," he replied. "Trust me though, I know what I'm doing."

Baby Tooth gave him a look that clearly said, _No you do not._ Jack ignored it and moved towards the door, only to find his way blocked by Oliver.

"Before you go anywhere you're going to explain what's going on," he said seriously. "If this is something dangerous then you need to tell an adult—that would be me—and stay inside."

Jack looked him over, weighing his options, and instead merely ducked underneath the man's arm and broke into a sprint calling, "Don't come after me!" behind him. Baby Tooth fluttered around his head, chirping.

He nearly crashed into a very bewildered Amy and Brianna, who were walking out of Sophie's room to see what all the commotion was about. Ignoring their questions, he bolted down the stairs, through the living room, and threw open the front door. After hurrying outside, he shut the door firmly behind him and made his way into the yard.

It was disturbingly quiet outside, the silence only broken by his own breathing and the hum of Baby Tooth's wings. Jack wished he'd thought to grab his staff out from Jamie's bed before he took off; even if it was useless in the frost department, it was still sturdy enough to hit things with. He felt a twisting of apprehension in his stomach, not trusting the silence. He spared a glance up at the full, shining moon, and felt a little better. Jack didn't believe that the Man in the Moon would forsake him at a time like this.

Sophie said she'd seen Eve from the kitchen window, which faced towards the backyard. Jack slowly circled around the house, scanning around every so often to make sure he wouldn't suddenly find Eve flying at him like a bat out of hell. Which, in his mind, she kind of was. The air was freezing and the snow went past his ankles, making Jack regret not at least slipping on some shoes before bolting.

Jack's fists clenched with conviction. He wasn't meant to feel the cold, he was supposed to thrive in it. Eve had taken that away, and now he was going to get it back. He was tired of being human. Picking up their pace, he and Baby Tooth made it to the backyard. Jamie's house was positioned fairly close to the Burgess Woods, so his yard had quite a few trees. Judging by what Sophie had said, Eve was probably hiding on one of them.

But Jack was too impatient to search all of them so, with Baby Tooth sticking close, he stepped forward and said, "I know you're here, Eve. Why don't you come talk to me?"

The wind around them picked up, making the two shiver, and a dark figure rose out trees. It floated above the branches for a moment then descended down to about ten feet above Jack's head. There she was, the crazy Spirit of Autumn. Jack swallowed his nervousness and put on the best determined look he could in spite of how badly the odds were stacked against him.

"You found me," he said, looking Eve in the eye. "Why are you stalking me?"

"I am not finished with you yet," she replied.

Jack crossed his arms. "Haven't you got what you wanted? I can't make any more blizzards. I'm totally out of your way, aren't I? No more snow on Halloween."

Her sunken eyes narrowed and the wind blew a bit harder. "That is not good enough. I want no more snow. I am tired of my beautiful season being destroyed by your colorless swill."

"Well if you ask me, you accomplished that already," Jack argued, "Because I'll say it again, I can't make any more blizzards, or even frost up a window. Hell, I'm freezing right now. So aren't you done? Can't you leave me alone?"

Eve scowled menacingly, and Jack got the feeling that he was way off the mark.

"I want winter gone," the witch growled. "You must be gone. That was what the spell was supposed to do. Get rid of you. However, you are still here, and I am here to change that."

Jack's eyes widened in shock and realization, and he took an involuntary step back. "Wait…you were actually trying to kill me?!"

"Of course I was!" she snapped. "I thought that fall from the tree might have done you in, with your weakened state. However, I came back to check and what did I see? You were walking around as if nothing that happened! I could not get to you with so many humans near you, but now you are alone." Eve barked out a laugh. "You are alive. Powerless, but alive. As long as you are, you might yet still regain your magic. I cannot have that."

Jack moved back further. This was worse than he had expected. He thought she might attack him, sure, but outright killing? She would go so far to prevent her season from being changed? What kind of logic was that? Even without winter, there were still two other seasonal spirits. Did she plan to get rid of them also?

He swallowed nervously. In the state he was, he couldn't fight back very well. He needed help. These thoughts crossed his mind in the span of only a few seconds, and Jack came to a decision quite easily. Lowering his voice so Eve could not hear, he whispered to Baby Tooth, "Go find Tooth and Bunny. They said they'd be nearby, and I really need them right now."

The fairy nodded without argument, knowing the direness of the situation, and sped off unseen into the night. Eve, thankfully, hadn't noticed.

Jack figured his best bet was to keep her talking and stall for time. "So tell me," he said, "what are you going to do about Spring and Summer? They'll probably put up a much better fight than me, and from what I hear they hang around each other a lot. Can you take on two at once?"

"It is hardly any concern of yours," Eve answered. "You will not be alive to see."

"And what about the repercussions of that?" Jack continued. "Remember, I'm a Guardian. I have two jobs to do, protecting children as well as bringing winter. The Man in the Moon chose me specifically, so I doubt he'd be very happy about you knocking me off. When he finds out I'm gone, what's he going to do to you?"

Eve burst into gravelly laughter. "If that is what you think, then why has he not intervened on your behalf before now? Why is he allowing you to remain as you are, a weak and pathetic human? Why has he not returned your magic to you himself?"

Jack remained silent. That was a good point, but he still refused to believe that the Moon was intentionally keeping him this way. He always had a good reason for his actions, Jack knew. He had learned a long time ago that doubting the deity was a bad idea.

Eve, mistaking his silence for submission, continued, "If he has not intervened, that can only mean he sees no fault in my actions. I am justified in what I am doing. And now, Jack Frost, winter will end for good."

Jack moved back further. It didn't look like she intended to go after the Bennett family; she was just here for him. To kill him. He took a deep, steadying breath. Baby Tooth had gone to get help. The other Guardians would be there soon so all he had to do was keep the witch at bay until then. Jack knew he couldn't stay near the house, however. He had to take off running and lead her away from the people in the house and not stop until they were far enough away.

That plan was killed when he heard Oliver's voice call his name. He froze, turned slowly, and felt a stab of terror when he saw the party he had left behind hurrying towards him.

And, by extension, towards Eve.

**A/N:**

**This is getting exciting for me. Yay.**

**Nicole Worley: OH. You're right; I do also have a David in addition to Eleven and Amy! Wow. Bonus points for the names sounding similar. David Bennett, David Tennant… I'm not even kidding, only Eleven was intentional. **

**ICNyght: Because my readers' reactions amuse me.**

**readandwrite4evernever20: I am perfectly fine with sending my Montana snow over to you. I DON'T WANT IT. And as for updating, most of the time I write half the chapter one day, then finish it the day I update. So half one day, half the next. That gives me time and I'm not cramming things in.**

**Gamma Cavy: I know you asked me not to end this chapter in a cliffhanger, but I did it anyway because it's funny. Sorry. No I'm not.**

**Aurum: You are now hired as my narrator.**

**Citrine Griffin: Sophie could see Eve because she believes in her. Jack told her Eve was real, so Sophie believes she is. Oh, and the frost on Jack's hoodie is gone because he's not cold enough for it to be there anymore. It's just normal and blue.**

**paracuties: I don't know what snow days are like either! I've never had one, no matter how much snow we get.**

**roxas sailormoon: Yeah I know that. It's just fun to tease people about their treating snow as if it were the end of the world. It amuses me because I am a child. Anyway, why do you need a plow if you're only getting half an inch of the stuff or less?**

**Thanks to Thoytsi, galacticEntity, Forever Frosted, CelticGirl7, feathered moon wings, SilverEyeShinobi, khoathkeeper13, daughter of the hunt, Eauingchun, LunaTheLoneWolf, Twinspired, Bookworm290, derppypants, Hummingbird101, Lindyn Guards, Moonstar Daughter of Hades, RandomKrazyPerson, StarStreakedSky, Q-A the Authoress, Mystery Girl Who Writes, Silver-09, bedstories, Camelot Emrys, karasu99, Myaerdna, VasHappeninTeam, TeddyBear98, Guest, QuillOwl, Uniquely X, Alaia Skyhawk, otaco, farfetched4, azwolfe, LiviahEternal, megadracosaurus, Dragowolf, Lolxxx, and OctoberThirtyFirst.**

**God, we're getting so close to the end. Probably six chapters or less left. I don't know what I'm even going to do with myself when this is over. **


	19. Chapter 19

Jack saw Eve's eyes zero in on the approaching humans, and knew it had happened. They had finally reached the worst point they could get at. He still didn't have his powers, Baby Tooth had yet to return with help, and right now there wasn't anything he could do to keep his relatives safe. This was bad. This was very, very bad. The group ran up to him very quickly, and apparently didn't see the panic in his expression.

"You just ran off, we were surprised," Amy said, hands on her knees to catch her breath.

"You alright?" Chris asked, as the first to notice how pale Jack was.

Jack nodded dumbly then said in a low voice, "Please go back inside." He glanced swiftly back towards Eve, who seemed just as startled as him and, for the moment, just hovered silently above them. Her small eyes eyed the group curiously, and her face held an unreadable expression. Jack instantly felt more nervous and repeated more urgently, "Please go back in!"

Thankfully, nobody seemed to be able to see the witch aside from Jamie and Sophie, who were staring at her with wide, fearful eyes.

"Uncle Oliver," Jamie said quietly, understanding the need to keep his voice down, "I think we should go back in too. It's scary out here." Sophie nodded in agreement.

Oliver shook his head. "Not until we find out what's going on here."

"There's nobody out here," Brianna said grumpily, hands on her hips. She turned to Jack, "This better not be a prank. There's no good reason why we should be freezing out here in the middle of the night."

"That's what I've been trying to say!" Jack threw his arms in the air. "Thank you, Brianna!"

Taken aback by his immediate agreement, the girl closed her mouth with an audible snap.

Jack jumped and spun as Eve chuckled above him.

"Friends of the winter spirit?" she wondered aloud, "Will they try to impede me?" Her disturbing smile widened. "They cannot see me, but perhaps I shall make them disappear as well."

Jack heard Jamie inhale sharply and step backwards. A glance back showed him that the boy had his arms protectively around his little sister in an attempt to shield her from the witch's view. For some reason the sight made Jack furious, and he turned towards Eve and hissed, "_Don't you dare."_

She bared her teeth in a terrifying leer. "Are you going to stop me, little human?"

He clenched his fists determinedly. "Yes, I am. Attacking me is one thing, but if you hurt these people then there'll be hell to pay for you."

David blinked. "Who are you talking to?"

"There's nobody there," Brianna added brilliantly.

Oliver looked from Jack to the empty space in the air at which he was glaring. All the thoughts he had been having the past few days suddenly caused something to click in his mind and he said in a low voice, "Jack is there something there?"

The teenager turned to him with a panicked expression. Then, as he noticed the grim determination and understanding in the man's face, his shoulders relaxed slightly and he wiped his hands on his jeans.

"Maybe it's better if you do know…" he muttered. "Seeing might improve your chances for survival."

That sounded pretty grim to Oliver's ears, but he nonetheless asked, "See what?"

Jack faced him full-on now. "I'm going to ask you one more time. Do you believe in magic?"

"Like, fairies and witches?" Brianna raised her eyebrows. "That's ridiculous."

"No it isn't," Jamie whispered, backing up further.

"Actually, it kind of is," Amy frowned. "Chris and I stopped with that stuff around fifth grade."

"Everyone be quiet!" Oliver snapped without thinking. "Jack. I still have a question left over, and here it is. Can you say with absolute certainty that magic is real, and there is indeed something floating in the air pissing you off? You're not crazy?"

"Yes," Jack said without hesitation, glancing swiftly over his shoulder. Why wasn't Eve making a move? She was just sitting there, watching them like they were some kind of mildly interesting television show. It was making him agitated. "I can prove it."

"Do it, then."

Returning his attention to the group, Jack directed, "Close your eyes."

One by one, they all hesitantly obliged.

"I fail to see the point of this," Brianna grumbled. She was told to shut up by more than one person.

"Alright." Jack took a deep breath. "You have to really believe that something's there. If you don't, you won't see it. Do you trust me?"

The group said yes with varying levels of enthusiasm.

"Good. Now open your eyes."

Oliver was the first, and visibly bit back a holler of surprise when he got an eyeful of the smirking Eve. The others, even Brianna, mimicked his actions and Jack knew with a surge of relief that he had gotten through to them. They had a better chance now. That was easier than he thought it would be.

"It's true," Oliver said weakly.

"Told you," Sophie piped up.

"This is insane," Amy said disbelievingly, staring wide-eyed at the autumn witch. "Who is she?"

"That's Eve, and she kind of wants to kill us. Well, me specifically, but-" Jack cut off suddenly as he noticed the winds pick up, and Eve's position shifted.

"They see me," she hissed. "I had better get this over with."

"Okaynevermindthisiswherewest artrunning," Jack finished hurriedly, bolting backwards and grabbing onto Jamie and Sophie, pulling them along.

"What But-"

"You said you trust me, now come on!" Jack hollered. The others hesitated, then he heard their feet pounding behind them. Eve flew overhead and out of sight, and he realized she was getting ahead of them. They had to get to a place where they couldn't be seen. He led them down the block and turned, heading into the main part of town.

"How is she doing that?" David yelled behind from behind.

"It's the wind," Jack explained breathlessly as they ran. "Jamie, what's that cartoon you like, the one with the bald kid who controls the air?"

"Avatar," the boy answered.

"Right, it's like that. She can control the wind, fly around on it, and use it as a weapon." Jack took a sharp turn left into an alley, and the group followed closely behind. "It can be pretty lethal."

"Can't you do that too, though?" Sophie asked, clutching her side and panting.

Jack shook his head. "Not to the extent she can. Wind is more associated with her season than mine; my main power is ice and snow, remember?"

"Who is she?" David asked, eyes wide.

"Her name is Eve," Jack replied.

"I can't believe I'm even listening to this," Brianna interrupted. "This is all completely crazy. How do you know all this? Why is she after you? Seriously, _what are you_?!"

They turned into another alley, a dark and shadowy alcove. It would be difficult for Eve to spot them from any angle, ground or air. Jack was relieved to finally be able to stop running. At the moment, they were at least a little safe in hiding and could catch their breath.

He looked towards Brianna, "Really? We've got a homicidal witch chasing after us and you want to go into who_ I_ am?"

She crossed her arms and glared at him. "Yes."

Amy sighed heavily. "I never thought I'd actually agree with you, Bri."

"Yeah Jack, I think you owe us an explanation at this point," Chris added. "Especially if we're going to die."

"You're not going to die," Jack replied crossly. "Don't think like that."

"You're dodging the question," Oliver said in a low voice. "Jack, this is a dangerous situation. I didn't think this sort of thing would ever happen to me, not in my wildest—okay, maybe in my wildest dreams, but certainly never in my normal ones. And…" His brown eyes flickered to his nieces and nephews. "And my family's roped into it. If it will help us at all, then I want to hear _everything_ you know."

Jack hesitated for a long while then let out a huff of breath, blowing his bangs upward. He couldn't argue with that; he knew the man was right. He owed them an explanation. "Are you certain you'll believe me?"

"I've seen a lot of extraordinary things tonight," Oliver quipped dryly. "Try us."

Jamie looked at the older boy with wide eyes. "You're going to tell them?"

Jack nodded grimly. "Everything." Then his lips quirked up in a small smirk. "I'm surprised you actually need me to tell you it straight out, because you were so close to the answer before."

Oliver blinked. "Was I?"

"Yep." The smirk widened to a full-on grin now. "Earlier today, when we were talking about legends. You thought it, I know you did."

"You wanna cut to the chase?" Brianna asked sharply.

"Fine." He took a deep breath. "My name isn't Jack Overland. It used to be, but that was a long time ago."

"Yeah, and? You're not making any sense."

"You want to stop interrupting?" Jack snapped at Brianna. "Fine, if you're so curious. My name is Jack Frost, and I'm the Spirit of Winter. Nice to meet you."

And there it was. The bomb had been dropped. God, it felt good to finally be able to say his real name. The whole family (aside from Jamie and Sophie, who were clearly trying very hard not to crack up) gaped at him in shock.

"I don't believe you," Brianna said finally.

"Yet you believe in the witch chasing after us," Jack deadpanned in response.

"It's true!" Jamie insisted.

"Yeah!" Sophie glared at her older cousin. "Jack can fly and make blizzards and freeze things and make pictures come to life! He's done it before!"

The winter spirit scratched the back of his head. "Well, I don't do that last one too often. All the other stuff is true. I'm not lying."

"You don't look like an old guy," David pointed out weakly.

Jack laughed. "Weren't you paying attention to your uncle earlier? I'm depicted as a young adult or teenager more often than not. Which is good, because it's really awkward when people think you're ancient when you're not." He frowned thoughtfully. "I guess in your terms I am pretty ancient, though. I'm over three hundred years old."

The last comment sent them into another long pause filled with staring and slackened jaws, until Oliver broke it with, "That explains quite a bit, but… How is that possible?"

"Magic," Jack answered simply. "I'm immortal. Well, I usually am. I hit kind of a rough spot and I've been stuck as a human the past few days."

"What happened?"

He sighed heavily and gestured to the skies. "Eve happened. I, uh…" he coughed awkwardly, "pissed her off a little. Let me be clear in that it was an _accident, _and it happened such a long time ago that I expected her to forget about it. She didn't, and voila. Human Jack."

Jack sighed again and leaned against the brick wall of the alley. "Long story short, I ended up staying at your guys' house."

"Incredible," Oliver breathed, running a hand through his hair.

"No kidding," Chris agreed.

Jack grinned at him. "Want to hear something that will amaze you even more?"

"Ah…sure, have at it."

"That boy who drowned in the pond, three hundred years ago. That was me. That was the day I became immortal, actually." It was strange how easily he could say that, considering how much the subject of his death had been bothering him recently.

There was a beat of silence, and then Oliver whooped as loudly as he dared. "I _knew_ it!" He punched the air in victory. "I am such a genius, I so had that figured out!"

"Good job, Uncle Oliver," Amy congratulated, clapping him on the back.

Oliver spun to Jack with a manic gleam in his eyes, "How do you become immortal? Is there someone who does it for you? Are there others like you and the crazy witch? What do you do, exactly? You said you're the Spirit of Winter but that doesn't entirely detail—"

Jack held up a hand to halt the man in his tracks. "Yeah, sorry professor, we don't really have time to go into that right now. I'll tell you all about it more later because we have bigger things to deal with at the moment." He turned to face the family, "There's a lot more to explain, but we can't do it right now. I have help coming on the way, but I don't know when they'll be here or how long we'll have to wait. Until then, we're stuck with Eve hunting us up. We can't hide here forever."

"We can't?" David asked weakly. "It seems like a pretty good spot to me."

Jack shook his head. "Sorry," he apologized again. "You guys are caught up in this and it's my fault. But as long as everyone here trusts me, it'll be fine. Believe me."

It suddenly occurred to him that it seemed history was repeating itself. Once again, he was protecting a family member from imminent danger. Well, several family members at this point. It hit Jack hard just then that these people were indeed related to him, and they were the only things he had left of his sister.

Amy grinned and flashed him a thumbs up. "Hey, with all the crazy stuff that's been happening tonight, I'm pretty inclined to believe you. Do whatever you have to, I'm cool with it."

"Same here," Chris and David agreed at the same time.

Brianna rolled her eyes. "If it's my one chance at survival, I guess I have to." Behind her cross demeanor, Jack could see something else. No matter how much the girl wanted to deny it, she was interested. There was a spark of excitement in her eyes.

"You two, you with me?" Jack asked Jamie and Sophie. The twelve-year-old scoffed, "When are we not?" and Sophie nodded in agreement.

"I am as well," Oliver added. "This is exciting."

"This is dangerous," Jack frowned. "Now come on, let's get going."

** A/N:**

**I was going to make this chapter longer and less of a cliffhanger but then I remembered that I'm Satan and torturing people puts me in an insanely good mood so here you go. However, not updating for the past couple days and leaving you guys hanging was completely unintentional, so I apologize for that at least. Meh, whatever, this chapter sucks.**

**I was unexpectedly busy over the weekend. My friend's birthday was on Sunday and I also had other things to do, plus I was very tired for some unknown reason. I swore to myself that I would find a way to update on Monday. Then Monday, my mom suddenly sprung on me that I had a dentist appointment and also since it was some kind of holiday all the places that had internet I could use were closed. It sucked. **

**Anyway, two or three days isn't that bad, ya drama queens. Calm down. When I have things to do, real life takes precedence over fanfiction any time. Sorry. **

**Reply time. **

**readandwrite4evernever20: No, Spring and Summer are only mentioned in passing and won't show up. I have too many OCs here already.**

**azwolfe: Aww, I've inspired you? You're making me blush…I'm not that great… Anyway, I'll have to give your story a look once you have it up.**

**art chic 99: Well yeah I'm going to finish it soon, that's what this whole climax and my saying there's less than six chapters left is supposed to convey. **

**Camelot Emrys: Oh, Eve totally didn't think it through. She's crazy, doncha know. **

**Angel-chan Desu: Watch your fucking mouth! Lulz I'm funny. Seriously though I don't care about swearing, so my reviewers can use naughty language as much as they want and I won't so much as bat an eye. **

**Aurum: GOD I love when you do that. It amuses me. **

**Silver-09: That made me laugh harder than it should have. You realize you more-or-less just burned a witch at the stake? Fantastic, we've turned into the Inquisition XD**

**KokoLolo: WELL LOOK WHO FINALLY TURNED UP. Lolo, this story's almost over and you're JUST NOW catching up?! Kidding, I love you. **

**Thanks to LunaTheLoneWolf, paracuties, Hummingbird101, Forever Frosted, LightMyBulb, Mystery Girl Who Writes, Q-A the Authoress, galacticEntity, Pokeshadow55, Eauingchun, demone, derppypants, OctoberThirtyFirst, roxas sailormoon, GhostGirl58, daughterofthehunt, bedstories, Myaerdna, StarStreakedSky, feathered moon wings, Underworld Angel, LiviahEternal, Guest, Guest #2, TeddyBear98, khoathkeeper13, Moonstar Daughter of Hades, QuillOwl, Alaia Skyhawk, zeldafan4ever, Kuzco, The Third Biker Scholar, Random Reader 17, ForeverHalfa, Lolxxx, LadyKnight21, megadracosaurus, BobaAddict, , hellraven-ovo, Dragowolf, SilverEyeShinobi, Wrighteous, Hereandthere, PlumKick, Luna Awesomesauce 1012, and Guest #3!**


	20. Chapter 20

Bunnymund was, simply put, very bored. He'd been on recon for the past few days with absolutely no action, and to a warrior such as himself that was something akin to torture. After he'd learned what Eve had done to Jack, he'd been so fired up and ready to go after her that it actually took a small pinch of Sandy's dream sand to calm him down. As much as he was loath to admit it out loud (though he was sure the other Guardians had already guessed as much) he really was worried for the winter spirit. His own encounters with Eve had not left good memories.

Now, he and Tooth were camped out in the Burgess woods, just waiting for something to happen. It was a dull night, as per usual, and the Pooka was amusing himself by throwing his boomerangs at trees. He didn't want Jack to get hurt by the autumn witch so he and Tooth had an excuse to swoop in, but he wouldn't complain if it came to a fight.

"It's as though you're waiting for them to come to life and attack you," Tooth said dully from where she was perched on the lower branches of a tree as the tip of his boomerang lodged into the bark beneath her feet.

Bunnymund snorted and went to retrieve it. "It'd be more exciting than just sitting here. When do we actually get to do something?"

Tooth raised her eyebrows. "Are you saying you want Eve to attack Jack?"

"I never said that. I just don't want to be sitting here. Come on, I know you're as bored as I am. I saw you shredding those bushes earlier."

The fairy tried to look indignant, but a small smile crossed her face. "Yes, you win, I'm dying. I want to rush in there and make sure he's okay, then take him to the Pole or somewhere he'd be safe. But I can't do that, and it's driving me crazy."

"I'm sure he's fine," Bunnymund reassured offhandedly. "C'mon, he can take care of himself, and he'd get mad at us if we treated him like a little kid."

"You're worried too."

"Difficult not to be, considering who we're dealing with." He sighed. "I don't understand this. Why is that ridiculous witch making such a big deal over one blizzard?"

Tooth snorted. "If I recall correctly, you were pretty angry after '68, and only recently let it go."

"Of course I was angry! Anybody has the right to be angry if someone messes up their holiday. But I did let it go, and I certainly didn't go chasing after the little frozen idiot for a century and a half. The question was, why is she going to such extreme lengths? In the end, it doesn't matter." Bunnymund returned to aiming his boomerang at shrubbery, scowling.

Frowning in thought, Tooth replied, "I really am curious to see why Manny hasn't done anything. Not just for this incident, but in the past. Eve has been unstable for as long as we've known her, so why hasn't she been taken care of before now? It doesn't make any sense. Why did he even choose her in the first place?"

Bunnymund shrugged. "Maybe she was okay when he chose her, and her brain got fried when she became immortal. I don't know; I haven't the faintest about what goes through Manny's head."

"Maybe North or Sandy knows. We'll have to ask them later."

"Where is Sandy, anyway? He was here earlier."

"Making his rounds. I have my fairies out collecting the teeth right now but he doesn't have any helpers, so he's busy."

"Eh, whatever. If anything happens, we can handle it."

Tooth nodded and the two lapsed into a comfortable silence. A few minutes past in mind-numbing boredom before Bunnymund heard it. His ears twitched and he frowned, focusing. What was that sound? It was a sort of…humming, like the sound the mini-fairies made when they flew. Wait, there was a mini-fairy around…

"Tooth, incoming!" he announced, and she barely had time to react before something small and green came hurtling into her line of sight.

"Baby Tooth?" she gasped, and the fairy stopped right in front of her, panting. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Baby Tooth nodded her tiny head and chirped at her boss. It sounded urgent, but as Bunnymund didn't understand fairy language he was left waiting in anticipation. Tooth's face paled and she whispered, "Oh no…"

"What?" Bunnymund asked. "I thought she was only supposed to come back here if something happened."

"Something did," Tooth replied grimly. "It's Eve. She's there." She hopped off her branch and hovered in the air with a determined expression, matched by Baby Tooth. "Let's go."

Without hesitation, Bunnymund grinned darkly and said, "Bloody _finally_."

**xXx**

"So to sum up, your name is Jack Frost, you're an immortal spirit who's over three hundred years old and controls winter, and we're hiding from a crazy witch who controls autumn and made you human and is now out to kill you. And us."

Jack glanced irritably back at Chris. "Yes, we covered this like five minutes ago. Keep your voice down, I don't want her to be able to hear us."

"This is exactly how I wanted to spend my night on Christmas," Brianna grumbled. "Fantastic."

"Shut up!" Jack hissed. "Nobody listens to me!"

"So what's the plan?" Oliver asked in a quiet tone, so low even Jack could scarcely hear him. The winter spirit peered around the corner of the alley, searching around for any sign of Eve. Aside from the howling of the wind, he couldn't sense her presence anywhere nearby at all.

He allowed himself a small, brief sigh of relief and began running his plan over in his mind. He'd seen Baby Tooth take off in the direction of the forest, so there was a good chance that was where help was. They were on the edge of the main town now, so the forest was a bit of a ways away, but if they hurried and remained absolutely silent they might be able to make it there without detection. Odds were that Baby Tooth would make it to help before they even got there, anyway.

"We're going to head for the woods," he muttered to the group. "If Tooth and Bunny are around here, that's likely where they'll be."

Sophie's face lit up with a bright smile. "Bunny's gonna be here?"

"Hopefully."

The little girl squealed in excitement and Amy raised her hand. "Question. Who are Tooth and Bunny, exactly, and how can they help us?"

"They're the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny," Jack answered absently, still scanning the area. "They're friends of mine."

Brianna snorted. "Great. I've always wanted to meet a fairy and a fluffy little rabbit. They sound like a lot of fun."

Jack exchanged an amused grin with Jamie, who said, "He'll get mad at you if you call him fluffy, and he's not little at all. "

"Besides," Jack smirked, cutting off Brianna as she opened her mouth to say some other demeaning and sarcastic thing, "I'm the fun one. Now, are we done catching up? Can we go?"

"Your call, captain," Amy saluted.

The others nodded and Jack crept silently out of the alley, keeping a close eye on the skies. The group followed closely behind, making sure to make as little noise as their leader. As it was after midnight on Christmas, there were no people around, which Jack was thankful for. He didn't want to get any more humans involved than there were already, and he was already at his limit protecting his seven family members. Who, for their part, were actually making his job pretty easy.

They made it safely out of the alley and down the street, turning left in the direction of the Bennett house and, by extension, the woods. Eve would probably think that they were getting as far away from the house as they could and was broadening her search over the rest of the town. Jack dearly hoped that was what she was doing, and not silently following them. At that thought he nervously checked behind them, and only felt slightly better when he didn't see her.

Once they were out of the main part of town Brianna said, "Can we talk normally yet? As long as we stay hidden it shouldn't be a problem."

Jack was getting pretty fed up with her, but reasoned that she was at least better than Linda. "That would be counterproductive. Stay hidden, but make a lot of noise? Good luck with that."

Brianna muttered something that sounded rude but otherwise didn't reply. Jack grinned and they kept moving, nearing the park close to the house. As soon as he thought they were in the clear, he felt the wind pick up and car alarms all around began to go off.

"Run!" Jack snapped immediately, taking off. The others obeyed him without question and they hurried over to a shadowy space between two houses, hidden from sight. They crouched down fearfully and looked out to see the thin silhouette of Eve flying overhead.

"I know you are here!" her gravelly voice called out. "Come out, Jack Frost!"

He swallowed as the wind began to trash everything in sight, making the area look like it was under siege of a bad tornado. This was bad; he didn't want any other people to be affected by this. Now she was destroying a whole neighborhood dangerously near the Bennett home. Jamie and Sophie's friends lived around here, as well as countless others he'd become familiar with during his years in Burgess. This was too dangerous.

He inhaled deeply, knowing what he had to do. There was only one way to make her stop. He didn't like it, but he had to believe it would work.

"Okay," Jack said weakly. "Well, we can't keep letting her destroy property. New plan. I go out to her and you guys make a break for it."

"What?!" Oliver reached out and tightly gripped his arm. "Are you insane?! You said yourself, she's out to kill you!"

"Yeah, I did say that." Jack looked at him evenly. "And she'll kill you as long as I'm around. If anything, I can buy you guys a bit of time."

"And what about you?" Amy spoke up worriedly. "What's going to happen if you die? Aunt Susan will be really freaked out, and I'm sure she's not the only one. You have other friends and important people, right?"

"That's right!" Chris chipped in. "You're just doing what that witch wants. Who's to say that she won't come after us again once you're gone?"

"Look, don't worry about me." Jack took a deep breath and looked up at the moon. It was bright and full, and gave him a small amount of comfort. "I'm tougher than I seem. Besides…" He laughed a bit, but there was no humor in the sound. "I already died once. Maybe I'll get lucky again. Just make it to the woods and help will be there. I promise.

Without waiting for an answer, he turned to leave, but was stopped by something tugging on the sleeve of his hoodie. He looked down and saw Jamie gazing up at him with wide, fearful eyes.

"Don't go," he said softly. "I don't want you go get hurt."

Jack bent down to the boy's level and smiled reassuringly. "Hey, don't you have faith in me? You know I'm harder to take out than I look."

"Yeah, normally," Jamie replied, "But you're not all magical right now. And like you said, you already died once. It could happen again."

"It could," Jack agreed, "But you should try to believe that it won't. Believe that, okay?"

The look on Jamie's face was painfully familiar, and Jack suddenly recalled seeing the same fear in Rosie's eyes, standing on the cracking ice so long ago. He hated seeing it in his great-something nephew as much as he did his sister, and sought to make it better.

"Bunny and Tooth will be around soon. Finding them shouldn't be too hard, and they'll help," Jack instructed. Jamie didn't answer and he found himself continuing with, "Trust me, everything's going to be fine. You…You just have to believe in me."

Jamie swallowed and looked up at him uncertainly, and Jack forced a grin onto his face.

"I'll see you soon, okay?" he asked.

"Promise?"

"Of course I do."

With that, Jack straightened up and walked out of the shadows, casually waving goodbye as he stepped into the raging wind. Eve was waiting for him. Of course she'd known he was there. When she saw him, her face broke into the same disturbing sneer he was so familiar with.

"Buying your humans some time?" she leered.

Jack nodded. No point in lying about it. "Yes, I am. You hate them, but you hate me more. I'm your priority, so you'll take care of me first." With any luck, she'd spend so much time on him that the others would have a wide opportunity in which to make their escape.

Eve chuckled darkly. "You are correct."

Without another word, Jack found the ground disappearing under his feet as the wind whirled around him, lifting his body into the air. Before he could even feel a spark of fear, he was slammed into the side of the building. Pain shot through his body and he couldn't even draw a breath before it happened again. Three more times was he subjected to this, twice to the wall and once he was dropped unceremoniously to the ground.

Jack's vision clouded and he grunted in pain, unable to struggle against the force of the wind that held him captive. His strength was draining rapidly and he gasped for air, his head pounding. A few bones were broken for sure, and he was fairly certain he was bleeding somewhere. The wind held him upright, and he wasn't even aware that he had moved until he suddenly found Eve's face hovering mere centimeters from his own.

"Finally," she hissed, "This is over."

Despite the pain, Jack smiled. "Funny…" he panted, tasting blood in the back of his throat. "You actually think…you'll get away with it just like that…"

"I will," Eve said in a gloating voice. "Who is going to stop me?"

"…I can think of a few people…" Jack laughed dryly, and Eve's face contorted with rage. She leaned closer and he could smell her hot, rancid breath on his skin.

"You have nothing to laugh about," she growled. "You are finished."

He raised his head and smirked.

"Am I?"

And suddenly a sharp agony ripped through his chest and spread throughout his body. Jack heard himself yelling in anguish as fire consumed him, making his vision flood red. He was dimly aware of the fact that he was now falling, and he cracked his eyes open to a glint of silver shining in the moonlight.

_Oh,_ he thought dully as the ground rushed up to meet him, _she had a knife. Of all the ways to kill me, that was what she picked. _For some reason, that was more amusing than anything. Jack allowed himself one final chuckle before the world fell into darkness.

In the safety of the shadows, the Bennett family watched in horror as Jack's limp, bloody body dropped to the ground, unmoving, and listened as Eve victoriously called out, "Winter is gone!"

**A/N:**

**You guys have no idea how much I've been looking forward to this chapter. Like whoa. The minute I got the idea to kill Jack, I was ecstatic to reach this point. Yes, he's dead. No, the story is not over. Just watch and see. Things are really exciting now.**

**Reply time!**

**Thoytsi: Your reviews always make me so happy ;_; Also I like how you predicted that there wouldn't be any death in my story and then I went and killed Jack. Sorry, not sorry. **

**Eternal She-Wolf: You read it just because I'm the author? That…makes me really happy.**

**Kuzco: I do whatever the fuck I want. I think the end of this chapter proved that well enough.**

**StarStreakedSky: Oh, it was MLK Day? I don't keep track of these things. No school equates to a holiday in my mind.**

**daughterofthehunt: I got that quote from The Santa Claus. Ring a bell?**

**Thanks to paracuties, khoathkeeper13, BobaAddict, CelticGirl7, wisteria moonseed, DeimosPhobos, MechaBunny, hellraven-ovo, KarToon12, Sandblasted-Kitten, Guest, Cougar rolypoly bug, wisedom's daughter, Dragowolf, EpicDetour9, Alaia Skyhawk, HarmonySoundown, Gamma Cavy, naien543, Novanto, Here To Annoy, LalaithoftheVine, Camelot Emrys, galacticEntity, Guest #2, Cool Cat, Twinspired, DoomCabbit, Forever Frosted, PuppetMaster55, OtakuAme, jg, Aurum, readandwrite4evernever20, GhostGirl58, Random Reader 17, Silver-09, Myaerdna, snow bunny rabbit, Lindyn Guards, TeddyBear98, RandomKrazyPerson, Serendipital, Skies of Wind, art chic 99, VasHappeninTeam, Q-A the Authoress, Lolxxx, azwolfe, Sapphire noodles, Uniquely X, Aerrow4Ever, Yami's Devil, Moonstar Daughter of Hades, and CurleyNai!**


	21. Chapter 21

She was looking for them. Now that Jack was out of the way, Eve was focusing her attention on the humans who put so much faith in him. The family huddled down, hardly daring to breathe or make any kind of sound for fear of attracting the witch's attention.

Jack lay unmoving on the hard black pavement, back facing the Bennetts. Jamie did his best not to look at the bloody, broken body, afraid that if he so much as glanced at his best friend he would lose it completely. Four years ago, Pitch had knocked Jack out of the air and he'd fallen at least a hundred feet, right onto a dumpster, and walked away from it with hardly a bump on his head. Jamie kept expecting the same thing to happen now, that Jack would get up with a laugh, brush himself off, and kick the witch's butt.

That didn't happen. Jack didn't move at all; he wasn't even breathing. Sophie was clinging to her brother's shirt and quietly crying into it, and the rest of the family wasn't faring much better. They each had similarly shell-shocked expressions, hardly able to believe what had happened. Jamie couldn't believe it much himself. He felt like screaming and crying as much as Sophie was.

But he didn't. Jack had told him to keep believing in him, and Jamie was not about to stop now. He knew what they had to do. A glance overhead showed him that Eve appeared to be moving on, her emaciated frame silhouetted by the light of the moon as she flew by.

After a few agonizing moments of tense silence, Jamie let out a heavy breath and let his shoulders relax. "I think we're okay now," he said. "We should go."

"But…" David gestured helplessly to Jack.

Jamie just shook his head. "He said we had to go to the woods."

"We can't just leave him there, though!" Amy insisted.

"We have to!" The younger boy glared at his cousin "Jack said…everything was going to be okay. He promised."

"I don't know if you remember Jamie, but Jack said that _before_ he fell to his death," Brianna pointed out shakily, her face white as a sheet.

"He knew that was going to happen, though. That's why he did it, and he said himself that he was giving us more time, right?" Clenching his fists, Jamie continued, "He said that we'd get help if we went to the woods. He wouldn't make that up, so that's what we have to do, okay?"

Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed Sophie's hand and began leading her away in the direction of the woods. After a moment, he heard Oliver say, "He's right. There's nothing we can do. Let's go."

There wasn't any time to cry or worry about Jack. They had to get out of there.

Sophie sniffled with a whimper and Jamie held her hand tighter. She looked up at him with watery eyes and asked in a trembling whisper, "Jack's gonna be okay, right?"

"Of course," he reassured with a confidence he didn't really feel. "It's Jack. He's always okay, isn't he? We'll see him soon."

He prayed that was the case. However, Jamie's answer did to comfort Sophie a little and she nodded and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. After walking in silence for several minutes, keeping a close watch in the skies and the area around them, Oliver walked up to his nephew and cleared his throat.

"May I ask exactly what kind of help we're getting?" he asked. "You seem to be familiar with whatever they are."

Jamie nodded. "I am. Well, me and Sophie. We've met them before."

"Who is 'them,' though?"

"The Guardians. They're the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Sandman, and Santa. Jack too."

"And what do they do, exactly?" Amy piped up from the back.

"They watch over kids," Jamie explained. "It's their job. If something bad comes that puts kids in danger then they take care of it. Jack said that the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are here and will be able to help us."

"This is crazy," Brianna said. "Stuff like this isn't supposed to exist."

"But it does," Jamie replied flatly, and Sophie turned around to stick her tongue out at her cousin. "You can see them if you believe in them. And you saw the witch, so…" He flashed Brianna a genuine grin. "You believe in all the other stuff too. Just like a kid."

Amy nudged Brianna with a snicker, and the younger girl responded with a venomous glare and a mumbled "Shut up…" Despite all their worries, the rest of them managed an amused smile as well.

"So what are they all like?" Oliver asked curiously. "Considering their fame, I imagine them to be fairly interesting characters."

Jamie grinned despite himself. "They are. But you'll have to wait to meet them, because it's more interesting that way."

His uncle groaned dramatically. "Alright, fine."

They kept walking without saying anything after that, which gave Jamie ample time to think. He didn't want to think about anything right now, but the silence and the events of that night allowed for nothing else.

He was scared, there was no denying. Jack had said he would be okay, but was that really true? Jamie wanted to believe him, he really did, but what he had seen earlier had shaken him to the core. Jack couldn't be gone, could he? He was immortal. He said that someone had made him that way, so that someone wouldn't just let him die. That was what Jamie wanted to believe, and that was what he clung to as they reached the edge of the forest twenty minutes later.

"So do we just go in, or…?" Amy trailed off, gesturing to nothing. Jamie shrugged.

"I guess so. They're probably around here somewhere." As he said it, the wind picked up around them, and a haunting laugh sounded from behind. Jamie's eyes widened and he immediately said, "RUN!"

The group took off into the trees as fast as they could, snow being whipped up by the wind and stinging their eyes. Sophie tripped and her brother helped steady her, and he couldn't even see where they were going. Just blindly forward.

Until he and Sophie ran into something very large and very furry.

"Whoa! You alright there, mate?"

Jamie stepped back in shock and found himself staring up at the large, imposing figure of the Easter Bunny.

** A/N:**

**I don't remember ever being more unmotivated to write than I have been this weekend. Guys, give me motivation. (That's why I haven't updated and why this chapter is absolute shit, by the way. Writer's block hit full-force.) Next chapter will be nice and long and not total crap and also POSTED TOMORROW, I PROMISE; I just didn't want to leave you guys hanging any longer. God, I hate this.**

**MagicGold34: Whoa man, cool your jets. I don't like threats of violence. Happy late birthday, by the way.**

**Uniquely X: But, I'm sixteen and I don't have a job. I can't pay for a funeral and 300+ medical bills.**

**hisokauzumaki: YES. I just waiting for someone to say, "What have you done?!" There's nothing more satisfying to me than hearing that. Thank you.**

**BobaAddict: I'm sorry, I didn't update… But hey, where's YOUR update, hm? Yeah, answer me that!**

**Cool Cat: COOKIES. True story, my friends and I like to hang out in the art classroom at lunch and our teacher brought us cookies left over from her daughter's bridal shower, and we jumped on them violently. Those cookies were gone in like three minutes. Thank you!**

**Angel of Love and Fluffy Stuff: Well you've certainly lived up to your username. Pfft, sarcasm. Have fun crossing the mountains with your pitchforks and torches, guys. **

**Lady Isaiah: I'm glad you liked it, considering you're the one who gave me the idea to kill him in the first place :D What were you expecting?**

**Moonstar Daughter of Hades: Because it's fun.**

**Thanks to SevendeadlySins89, feathered moon wings, XIII-Jinx-XIII, paracuties, Writeous, Kaylee, KoiKyuuiKitai, art chic 99, StarStreakedSky, bedstories, Thoytsi, Here To Annoy, CrystalxRose, Hunter-Re, Lindyn Guards, Mystery Girl Who Writes, Sympathy for the Lost Love, Meanxruki, Eternal She-Wolf, hellraven-ovo, nekobaka99, Dragowolf, LiviahEternal, Alaia Skyhawk, MechaBunny, EmperialGem21, Aurum Le Greyhound, Silver-09, Ironic-Sarcasm, Doyle0915, pokesam, Camelot Emrys, Firefury Amahira, daughterofthehunt, WarriorLoverInc, LightMyBulb, Crickett5, Lolxxx, Avis, .latchem, galacticEntity, Forever Frosted, Guest, Q-A the Authoress, azwolfe, Eauingchun, OtakuAme, FantasyFreakLover, AIOFanNCRM, EpicDetour9, flowerpower71, GhostGirl58, readandwrite4evernever20, Sapphire noodles, hi, Serendipital, RandomKrazyPerson, Emcee Bean, VasHappeninTeam, CelticGirl7, Novanto, TeddyBear98, khoathkeeper13, Kuzco, Skies of Wind, guest 367, NoNameTheJellyfish, Link Fangirl01, roxas sailormoon, Cool Cat, Gurrbill, Aerrow4Ever, Soshoryu, Gamma Cavy, kaithedragon, Cougar rolypoly bug, Angel-chan Desu, megadracosaurus, winter's-lion, KaiFudo 16, SilverEyeShinobi, and LovingAnime97.**

**Sorry. I'm so sorry. I take forever to update and then I give you **_**this… **_**Tomorrow, tomorrow I swear…**


	22. Chapter 22

"You're a giant talking rabbit."

"Yes," Bunnymund replied irritably, looking down at the completely gobsmacked Oliver and co. "Thank you for pointing out the obvious, mate, I'm sure we all needed that. Pretty eloquent for an adult, you are."

"Bunny!" Sophie squealed, momentarily forgetting her fears at the sight of her favorite Guardian. She released Jamie's hand and ran up to the Pooka, throwing her little arms around his torso and burying her face in his fur. Bunnymund looked surprised for a moment, then smiled and wrapped his arms around the little girl, ruffling her hair at the same time.

"Hey there ankle-biter, how've you been?"

"Good up till now," she mumbled back.

Jamie looked around in confusion. "Wasn't the Tooth Fairy supposed to be here too?"

Bunnymund shrugged sheepishly. "I might've left her behind back there. She'll catch up." He eyed the group of stunned humans critically. "So this is your family, huh? Not to chatty are they?"

Amy absently pushed her glasses further up her nose and replied weakly, "I think it's kind of due to the fact that you're like a seven-foot-tall Aussie rabbit thing with boomerangs and…just…_whoa_…" she trailed off. "And you're the Easter Bunny. That's like the most badass thing I've ever seen." Beside her, her brothers nodded in agreement.

"It is pretty surprising," Oliver chipped in. "I'm not sure you're quite what any of us were expecting."

"You aren't exactly what I expected either," Bunnymund scoffed. "I wasn't expecting to deal with a whole lot of you. I thought it would just be Frostbite and the witch. Speaking of, where are the two of them?"

The group fell into an uncomfortable silence then, and the Pooka frowned. What had happened? Before he got a chance to ask, however, the sound of panting filled the area and they all turned to see an exhausted-looking Tooth and Baby Tooth flutter up to them.

"Next time, could you warn me before taking off in your tunnels like that?" the fairy asked, holding her side. "I've been looking all over for you!"

"Not my fault if you can't keep up," Bunnymund shot back. Tooth opened her mouth to retort, but a swift glance to the side to see the Bennetts gaping at her shut her up.

"What's the matter?"

"That's a fairy," Brianna whispered. "That's a real fairy."

"Two real fairies, actually," Tooth corrected, gesturing towards Baby Tooth. "Who are all of you? You look familiar. Have I seen your teeth somewhere?"

"This is our family," Jamie explained, and introduced everyone by name. "Everyone, this is the Tooth Fairy. Uh…"

"Just call me Tooth," she smiled, smoothing back a few iridescent feathers. "Sorry, nice to meet you and everything, but where's Jack? Shouldn't he be with you?"

She caught the family's distressed look and paled with realization. "…What did he do?"

"He didn't try to take Eve on himself, did he?!" Bunnymund exclaimed. The humans' lack of response spoke for itself, and he groaned. "He does this all the time! Someday that bloody idiot's going to get himself killed!"

"He did," David mumbled.

"What?"

"She killed him," he said a little louder. "He went out to talk to her and she killed him."

Bunnymund shook his head disbelievingly. "Not possible. Frostbite doesn't just die."

"It's true," Chris added, shifting uncomfortably under the Pooka's scrutinizing stare. "Jack went to talk to her and then she…dropped him or something. We didn't really see what happened because it was dark and they were in the air, but when he fell…he wasn't moving, or breathing, and he was covered in blood."

"He screamed, too." Brianna was scowling with her arms crossed, looking anywhere but at her family and the Guardians. It was evident that she was trying to hide her own worry, and failing spectacularly at it.

Tooth and Bunnymund exchanged a stricken look, hardly daring to believe it. Jack, dead? No, that would never happen. Not only was Jack really not the type to go and get himself killed (crazy schemes and general unwillingness to accept help from others notwithstanding), but what were the odds that the Man in the Moon would really let a Guardian die? He'd chosen all the immortals with explicit care, the Guardians even more so, thus it was a safe bet that he would go out of his way to help one if they were in a life-threatening situation. Currently human or not, Jack was a creation of MiM, and so it was difficult to imagine the deity allowing his death at the hands of another spirit.

Turning back to the group, Tooth asked, "Where is Eve now? Where did you last see the two of them?"

"We left Jack a few block up from our house, on near the Benton and Clarke intersection," Jamie answered without hesitation.

"As we were coming here we thought we heard Eve behind us, which is why we were running a moment ago, but I suppose she didn't see us," Oliver added, speaking up for the first time in a while. For the past few minutes he'd been staring at the Guardians with disbelief, unable to wrap his mind around the fact that the childhood figures he'd believed in so much as a young boy were real and currently standing in front of him. It was a lot for anyone, an adult in particular, to fully take in.

Bunnymund nodded. "If she had seen you, we would be standing here talking, that's for sure." He turned to Tooth, "What d'you think? Got any ideas for this?"

She hummed thoughtfully. "Well, I think we should definitely get these guys to a safe place, nowhere around here, especially if she's after them. We need to find Jack, too."

"There's not much to find," Brianna said darkly, and was immediately shushed by her family members.

"Now, where should we send them?" Tooth paced back and forth in midair, Baby Tooth mimicking her concentrated expression.

"Not my Warren," the Pooka said immediately. "Anywhere but the Warren. It's not set up to accommodate a lot of people."

"Neither is the Tooth Palace, what with all the platforms and my fairies working everywhere. That just leaves the North Pole, then."

"North will be thrilled."

"Sure he will. Look at all the kids in this group."

"Hold up, hold up," Brianna interjected, "The North Pole? Like, with Santa Clause?"

"Yes, you'll like it there," Tooth answered cheerily. "He might be in a bad mood because he's tired from Christmas, but he'll get over it. Be sure not to feed the elves."

"And exactly how do you plan on getting us all the way from here to the freaking Arctic?" the teenage girl asked sardonically, shaking back her hair as she glared at the two.

"The bunny has boomerangs, Bri, I'd be more polite if I were you," Amy grinned.

True to form, Bunnymund smirked so conspiratorially it would put Jack Frost himself to shame. He hoisted Sophie up into his arms and Tooth got a firm grip on Jamie. "Oh, you'll see soon enough." The smirk widened into a full-on grin now as he tapped his foot against the frozen ground.

"Buckle up."

**xXx**

North was actually having a pretty good night. It was past midnight at the North Pole, meaning that Christmas was now done and over with. No more gifts to deliver, no more preparatory all-nighters, no chaos in the workshop. Everyone in Santoff Clausen was taking a well-deserved break, at least until after the New Year when they started all over again.

He was in his personal sitting room at the moment, reclining back by the fire and regaining lost stamina via inhaling cookies and eggnog. It was nice and relaxing, and North liked not having to worry about anything work-related for once. He could kick back, put his feet up, and worry about other things instead. It was a pretty good deal, in his opinion.

North knew that Tooth and Bunnymund probably had control over the whole situation with Jack. They were all as close as a family, and if one of them was in trouble then the rest were there to help. Tooth and Bunnymund definitely would not let anything happen to their youngest member, North knew that, and yet he could not stop worrying. Force of habit, he supposed; Jack was known for doing crazy things if he thought it would make a situation better. Considering that, it made sense for North to be concerned about the boy. Eve was not a good enemy to have, every immortal in the world knew that.

North had always wondered why the Man in the Moon had agreed to turn her in the first place. She hadn't been Manny's idea and nowhere near his first choice for the job, though very few people knew that bit. North was fairly certain that only he, Sandy, and the one who had vouched for Eve knew the real reason behind her creation. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. What had that woman been thinking? Surely she couldn't have really thought that instating Eve as the Spirit of Autumn and imbuing her with powers was a good idea. Eve's mind had been messed up since before her creation. One thing was for sure, something would have to be done about the witch after this incident.

He sighed again and moved to raise his mug of admittedly vodka-infused eggnog to his lips. It wasn't enough to intoxicate him, he could swear on his life, but it was still a good thing to not let the children of the world find out about it. Hey, he was Russian, what could he say? Russian with a healthy dose of Cossack background. In any case, he thought he was going to relax.

…at least, that had been the plan until a large hole opened up in the middle of his sitting room floor and a massive pile of people came spilling out.

North choked and lurched to his feet as Bunnymund and Tooth untangled themselves from the masses and approached him with ruffled fur, feathers, and two winded-looking children in tow. The Russian recognized them as Jamie and Sophie Bennett, the two Guardian favorites, but what were they doing here? Wasn't Jack supposed to be with them? A quick look around showed him that the winter spirit was nowhere to be seen.

Without so much as a greeting, Bunnymund passed Sophie into North's arms and said hurriedly, "Long story short, we need the Bennetts to hang out here for a bit. Eve's still out there so we need to find her, and Frostbite may or may not be dead so we need to go find him too. See ya later."

Tooth saluted and added, "Have fun, we'll be back soon!" with a smile. Without another word, the two Guardians jumped back down the tunnel, which closed immediately after and left a daisy blooming on North's carpet.

There was a long and awkward silence punctuated by groaning from the pile of unfamiliar humans, until Jamie waved a little and said, "Hi Santa."

North, completely bewildered, replied with the first thing that came into his head.

"I don't suppose you'd like any cookies?"

**A/N:**

**I KEPT MY PROMISE. CHECK IT, LOSERS.**

**Seriously though I should stop making promises. They stress me out. **

**Whoops, another short chapter. Sorry. Some things need to be paced differently than others, and thus some chapters are just better if they're shorter. I'm estimating about…five chapters until this story is done and over with. Then I might take a break, and then start something for ParaNorman. Yes. Who would read a ParaNorman story if I wrote it?**

**If you'd rather not read ParaNorman, I now have a poll up on my profile with a few story ideas, asking what everyone would like to read once this story is over. I'd be much obliged if y'all went to check it out :) **

**I'm sorry for the "Russians like vodka" stereotyping. National stereotypes amuse me and I can't resist the chance to throw one in when I get the chance. (You guys have no idea how much I laugh at my own self for all the American stereotypes that apply to me. I also comment on Thoytsi's Britishness a bit more often than I should.)**

**Reply time!**

**Lovepuppy316: Well when it comes to Eve's name, I was thinking more along the lines of All Hollow's Eve, the name for Halloween way back when.**

**Link Fangirl 01: I'm sorry, I really am sixteen. My birthday's in July and I was born in 1996, so yeah. Please don't hate me. **

**asdfghjkl: WHO ARE YOU. Either you're a friend of mine IRL or you're from my page (the latter being more likely) because otherwise you wouldn't know that I absolutely hate being called Julie more than anything. Don't call me Julie, by the way, I'll freakin' kill you. **

**karasu99: WHY ARE YOU AT THE HOSPITAL? JESUS FUCK NOW I'M WORRIED. U OK BRO? **

**Thoytsi: "Your writing is like Nutella and bacon." Catherine, literally every word out of your mouth makes me happy in some way or another. Also I am not Moffat, as epic as that man is. I do like taking a few cues from him every now and then, though. **

**BobaAddict: I'll update fast if you update fast. Deal?**

**Gurrbill: I have a few Hetalia fans who probably want a word with me at this point. Eh, whatever. If they need my writing so bad then they can just…join the RotG fandom or something, because I'm here now and I intend to stick around for a while XD**

**Thanks to StarStreakedSky, Kaylessa, Silver-09, RandomKrazyPerson, Ari, Kaylee, Sparkle-Willow, Firefury Amahira, khoathkeeper13, angel grayson, ICNyght, Nicki K, Novanto, TomatoSoupful, Dragowolf, Cool Cat, MySadistChibi, Uniquely X, Kh530, Lady Isaiah, Eauingchun, feathered moon wings, Rosewaver, Angel of Love and Fluffy Stuff, 62, Moonstar Daughter of Hades, angeloflight125, FantasyFreakLover, wisteria moonseed, Q-A the Authoress, NoNameTheJellyfish, LightMyBulb, She Who Dreams of Tomorrow, Alienrose14, OtakuAme, readandwrite4evernever20, azwolfe, Hummingbird101, WikiSorcerer, Mystery Girl Who Writes, EpicDetour9, Liza Cobbler, VasHappeninTeam, Soshoryu, TeddyBear98, KatFromHell, Writeous, daughterofthehunt, Alaia Skyhawk, UnitedKingdomrules, AlwaysGryffindor13, FleetPoco, Aurum Le Greyhound, Reading nerd, MagicGold34, KaiFudo16, Stormgirl415, GS Girl, RedLicorice, CelticGirl7, KarToon12, Ironic-Sarcasm, megadracosaurus, Nicole Worley, Sympathy for the Lost Love, HarmonySoundown, Darkrystal Sky, LiviahEternal, Emememe, Camelot Emrys, nekobaka99, Mokuren no Ken, Guest, hellraven-ovo, Renegade, LunaTheLoneWolf, paracuties, and kaithedragon! **


	23. Chapter 23

** Oh look, a pre-chapter AN. I don't usually do these, but there's something I want to talk about. Last chapter, a lot of you guys pointed out that the family didn't seem all that distraught for having just witnessed a murder. You're absolutely right, and I feel really embarrassed. This is what I get for writing things without thinking about them first. I need to stahp that. But, after a bit of brainstorming, I actually came up with a pretty plausible explanation as to why they're not, y'know, totally freaking out. **

** It's because they're related to Jack! Finding reasons to smile in situations where there usually is none is a family specialty! Like when Jack himself turned saving his sister into a game and laughed to show her there was nothing to worry about, and then after he did save her, he was so pleased with himself he forgot that he was now the one standing on the unstable ice. Then he turned defeating Pitch into a game with the kids, and made them have fun. If he-and by extension, his family-can't find a reason to smile in dark situations, then they'll fall apart and be unable to function, and **_**that **_**would be counterproductive towards the purposes of this plot. It's why they can laugh and joke around, it's a defense mechanism that pushes the bad things to the back of their mind until they get to a point where they can deal with it properly. Yeah, it's out there, but it's all I've got. I just felt the need to say it here because it won't be stated outright in the story.**

** Right, enough of my rambling. We can get going now, sorry about that. Lots of talking and exposition in this one. **

** xXx**

They didn't want cookies.

If North prided himself on anything, it was his power of being hospitable. Whenever he had guests he always went out of his way to make them feel welcome and at home. Granted, the only visitors he ever really had to the North Pole were the other Guardians and the occasional other immortal or two, but that didn't mean he wasn't good at what he did. Even if he didn't know the guests in question, he put in his all.

These guests, however, were making his job pretty difficult. They were quiet and unresponsive, and it had taken quite a bit of prodding to get any of them to actually speak aside from a few muttered words of comfort from Jamie to his sister. None of them even seemed all that startled to suddenly find themselves in the North Pole, which North thought was very odd. They were, with the exception of Jamie and Sophie, all teenagers and there was even one adult; surely they'd be having a bigger reaction to the North Pole than just sitting dismally and staring at the fire.

Too many strange things were happening tonight, and that was coming from a man who used to be the king of thieves and the apprentice of a sorcerer. He'd seen quite a few unusual things in his time. North sighed to himself. What was going on? First Bunnymund and Tooth had popped in, dumped a pile of humans on his carpet, and gave him the briefest possible explanation before taking off again. Then, the humans themselves barely said a word. They rejected his offer of refreshments and he'd been forced to send the elves, who were ecstatic about guests, out of the room so they didn't disrupt the tense atmosphere with their antice. Eventually he had gotten an explanation out of Jamie, who had quietly mumbled what had happened to the large Russian.

Now they were all just slumped down in the sitting room, North observing them from his favorite armchair. They'd been like this for at least twenty minutes. It was a curious situation indeed.

He turned when he heard Jamie suddenly speak up shyly, "Santa?"

"Yes?"

"Jack promised he would be okay."

"Then he will be."

"But..." Jamie bit his lower lip, trying to figure out how to word his question. "He kind of..."

"Looked really dead," Brianna chipped in bluntly, looking more pained than she probably wanted to. Jamie nodded.

"Yeah. So...he will be okay, right? He wasn't just saying that to make us feel better? 'Cause people do that all the time; they say everything'll be fine when it won't be, but they just want you to stop worrying-"

"Jack does do that quite often," North interrupted smoothly, agreeing with a chuckle. "The thing to remember about him, however, is that he is good at keeping promises. He said he will be fine, and so he will."

"That's what the rabbit and the fairy said too," Chris said. "How do you know for sure? You didn't see it. He was..." He broke off and coughed uncomfortably. "Like, no offense or anything sir, but it's hard to believe that everything will just be okay."

"And yet here you sit, surprisingly unaffected. For a group of people so vocally concerned about Jack, you aren't panicking that much. Why is that?" They remained silent, surprised at the accuracy of the observation, and North continued, "It is because you already know the truth. You are worried, but so are all of us. That is human nature. You are worried, but not panicking, because you know the truth is that he will be alright. You believe us when we say that."

"How do you know for certain, though?" Chris couldn't resist asking again. North leaned back, stroking his beard thoughtfully. He carefully considered the answer before speaking again.

"Call it a hunch," he said with conviction. "A very strong one."

Oliver, who surprisingly hadn't spoken at all since they had arrived at the North Pole, frowned and said, "A hunch? That's what you're basing this all on? What proof do you have?"

"Common sense," North answered simply. "Allow me to explain. Jack is Jack Frost, the Spirit of Winter. He was chosen for that position, just as we all were. We were hand-picked specifically for the jobs we have, be it collecting teeth, spreading dreams, whatever. There are others like us, not merely us five. They are all important and it is very difficult to replace us with another eligible candidate if something happens to us, because there just aren't many around."

"Who goes around hand-picking people for jobs like that?" David blinked, bewildered.

North and Jamie answered at the same time. "The Man in the Moon." The younger boy added in, "Jack said so once."

The large Russian nodded. "Yes, Manny. He is the one who has the power and authority to do such things. He chose us for the purpose of protecting the people of this world. Well, the children specifically, but in protecting the children we protect the future. It is a very important job." He hummed. "Actually, protecting the children is the task entitled to only five of us, the Guardians, myself included. The other spirits have their own jobs to do that are more for the benefit of the planet in general, such as the nature spirits. Jack is one of the nature spirits, but he doubles as a Guardian."

"Question," Amy spoke up, anxiously twirling a lock of bright red hair around her fingers, "If these jobs are so important, why did the moon guy choose that nutcase witch? Jack said she was the Spirit of Autumn, and she does seem pretty obsessed over it, but I don't think someone like her would really be my first choice."

"There actually is a story behind that but I am not authorized to tell it," North said. "Not yet, anyway. It's a bit of a large secret, but I was going to talk to Manny to see if I could get permission just this once. After everything that has occurred Jack deserves to know why these things have happened to him when he gets here." He exclaimed loudly, "Ah, yes! Back to Jack. We have gotten sidetracked."

The family leaned forward in anticipation as North cracked his knuckles for no apparently good reason. Bad habit; he did it when he was getting into storytelling mode. It was probably a good thing that he didn't feel the effects of old age. The arthritis would probably kill him.

"Alright, here's how I know he will be fine, and it is a bit of a long explanation. Now, Jack's creation was different from the rest of us. His case is unusual in that he died before becoming immortal, while the rest of us did not have to."

"When he drowned in the pond?" Oliver assumed. North nodded.

"He still is wary of water. The topic is a rather sore one for him, he does not like talking about it, and we avoid it as much as possible. The only reason I am telling you is that it is relevant to the topic at hand. Now, normally, death is not a necessary factor in becoming immortal. I certainly didn't die before becoming what I am, and to my knowledge none of the others have either. Except one, but that's not important right now."

"What does it have to do with why Jack will be fine?" Brianna asked crossly. "You keep talking about his death, not his life."

"Calm down," North told her, raising a hand. "I understand your concern, but everything I am telling you needs to be said for you to fully understand. Jack died, but as he was chosen by Manny, he came back. Obviously this means that he is important, because Manny went to such lengths to instate him as a spirit; I imagine it's more difficult to revive a dead person than it is to simply use a living one."

Comprehension was dawning on Jamie's face and he said excitedly, "So this means..."

North smiled broadly. "He's already died as a human once, and was brought back because he's important. Manny likes Jack too, and there's nothing stopping him from doing the same thing again. Manny isn't very chatty, but he doesn't have to speak much to make his intentions clear. I am willing to bet anything that's what happens, in fact. He was probably waiting for the opportunity to give Jack his powers back, but was unable to he was around you people. So when Eve got to him and took him out, Manny had the opportunity he needed. It wasn't the circumstances he was imagining, but it was the best he could get."

The group was silent now, staring at the man with large eyes while they digested the information. North casually reclined back in his chair and took a swig of eggnog.

"It is a decent chunk of conjecture, you must admit," he said offhandedly.

"But what if you're wrong?" Oliver couldn't resist asking. "There is always that chance."

"There is, and if I am wrong then it is a very sad Christmas indeed," North agreed. "But when I have a good feeling about something, right down to my belly, I am very rarely wrong." He patted his midsection contentedly. "My belly is always right. It is best not to doubt it."

"Okayyy," Amy sighed, slumping down in her chair. "So you can say with more-or-less absolute certainty that Jack isn't dead?"

"Oh, he probably is dead. Your accounts of the story don't leave much to the imagination. I can say with more-or-less absolute certainty that he won't stay that way for long, because if there is something I know about Jack Frost it is that once you get him down, it doesn't take much for him to get right back up again."

The group let out a collective breath they didn't know they had been holding. This was the best information they had heard all night, and even though it wasn't a hundred-percent certain, there was certainly less of a reason to worry. They still did, of course, but they were much more optimistic and relieved. All they had to do was sit patiently and wait for Bunny and Tooth to return with whatever news they had and, hopefully, a live and healthy Jack Frost.

North figured that everyone was hungry and relaxed enough to eat, so he waved in the gaggle of elves that had been waiting apprehensively at the door. When they didn't have anything to do, the little creatures got antsy, and he didn't want them to start going haywire around the workshop. They scurried in, thrilled to finally have been given a job to do. The humans looked momentarily surprised, but then realized that elves were the least strange things they had seen and figured it was probably in their best interest load up on refreshments while they were available. Even Brianna grabbed a few candy canes and a mug of hot chocolate, observing the elves with thinly-veiled curiosity. Amy thought they were hilarious.

"Remember when he fell onto a Dumpster from like two hundred feet up?" Jamie asked with a grin, snagging a cookie from the plate of a passing elf. He had visibly relaxed, taking North's word with more belief than the others. "He just shook himself off. And then he threw a snowball at the Boogeyman's head."

Chris spluttered, "What?!"

Amy leaned forward with eagerness glinting in her eyes. "What kind of story are we missing out on here?"

Oliver's main concern seemed to be, "The Boogeyman is real too?!"

"Of course he is," North scoffed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world and Oliver was a fool for not thinking of it sooner. "You are an adult who believes, which is exceedingly unusual, but really, after everything you've seen and heard tonight you doubt the existence of the Boogeyman?"

Oliver paused, fidgeting, then muttered, "No..."

"I thought not." North stood and stretched. "I need to go speak with Manny, and get Phil to lessen the security so the others can get in easier later. You all relax and wait here, and when I get back I may just give you a tour of the workshop. Feel lucky, because not many people get that."

He smiled kindly at them before turning and heading out the door. Before it clicked shut, he was able to hear Sophie said casually, "You know Uncle Oliver, I think it's a really good thing that you believe in Jack. It'd be really weird and sad if you all didn't, 'cause of how he's related to us and all."

There was a beat of confused silence.

"Wait, _what?!"_

** xXx**

Bunny and Tooth weren't having nearly so comfortable a time. It was horribly cold in Burgess, and their fast pace against the raging winds weren't helping. Actually, the fact that it was so windy was the only reason they were sticking around. It was the only clue they had that pointed to Eve still being in the area. The Bennetts had said that she hadn't seen them, so there was a good chance that she was still hanging around looking for them. Bunny and Tooth wanted to find her so they could find out exactly what happened to Jack. She wasn't making it easy, though. They still hadn't managed to track her down, and Bunnymund was getting increasingly frustrated. It also didn't help that they were hopelessly lost, and couldn't find the area where Jamie had said they left Jack's body.

"What happened to 'knowing this place down to every alley'?" Tooth asked sardonically, quoting what Bunnymund had said a bit earlier as they were making their way into town. She wasn't in a good mood, and he wasn't doing much better.

"Pardon me if it's dark and the bloody wind's whipping snow around. Crikey, I thought you were one of the nice ones," he snapped. "And shouldn't _you_ know the way? Your fairies are out here all the time, aren't they?"

"_They_ are. _I_ am not." Tooth huffed, her breath coming out as a silvery cloud, and rubbed her arms for warmth.

Baby Tooth, who was hovering nearby, rolled her eyes. She was in Burgess quite often, be it on an assignment or just to visit Jack. But _no_, nobody bothered to ask her about her opinion. Finally fed up with the uncharacteristic bickering, she fluttered in front of Tooth's face and waved to get her attention.

Tooth's amethyst eyes zeroed in on the tiny fairy and she said, "What is it, sweetie? Did you see something?"

Bunnymund turned and watched as Baby Tooth chirped in response, and Tooth inhaled sharply.

"Really? I didn't even think of that, why didn't you say anything?"

Baby Tooth crossed her arms and gave her mother a deadpan look, chirping once. Tooth turned slightly pink. "I'm sorry, we didn't mean to speak over you."

"What's going on?" Bunnymund asked, confused.

Tooth answered, "She knows the way. She also would appreciate it if we..." She cleared her throat, "Stopped arguing. Well, she used a few more words, but that's the gist of it."

"What kind of words?"

"That doesn't matter, but I bet she learned them from Jack. He has some bad habits."

The Pooka snorted. "You don't have to tell me that. Speaking of him, she knows the way to where they left him?"

"Yes. We should probably get going."

Nothing more to say, the three of them hurried off in the direction towards which Baby Tooth had pointed, the tiny fairy leading the way. They were hindered only slightly by the harsh winds and the sting of the swirling snow. Eventually, they did manage to make it.

"This is it?" Bunnymund squinted, shielding his eyes against the swirling whiteness. "I don't see much of anything."

Tooth gasped, and he glanced over to her to see her face pale and her hands covering her mouth. With a shaking hand, she pointed to a spot on the pavement. He followed her line of sight and nearly exclaimed in shock when he saw what she was gesturing to. It was a decent-sized bloodstain, standing out against the snow and ice.

"Do you think this is where..." Tooth breathed.

Bunnymund swallowed. "Probably. Your fairy says this is the spot, right?"

"Right, there's no doubt, but..." She trailed off and shuddered. "Where is he? He should be here, because it wasn't like he could just move around. And even if Manny brought him back by now, we'd have seen him, right?"

"Probably. He's not exactly subtle sometimes."

"Bunny, you don't think _she_ took him, do you?"

His fists clenched. "There's only one way to find out, right? We have to find Eve." He tapped his foot against the ground, opening a tunnel. "The winds are blowing east. Let's head in that direction."

If they found Eve and she had Jack's body with here, there would be hell to pay.

Though, judging by the sudden rage of the winds and the menacing shadow falling over the area, they didn't have far to look.

**xXx**

Claustrophobia. That was the first thing he felt, like the darkness was crushing him from all sides and there was no way to get out. The first thing he was aware of was the feeling of being trapped and unable to escape, move, or even breathe.

It felt like he was drowning all over again.

For some reason, though, he wasn't as afraid as he should have been. After all, this had all happened before, and it had had a good ending to it. As far as he knew. He was having a hard time focusing his thoughts on any one thing, and every time a memory rose to the center of his consciousness it slipped away just as quickly. He couldn't focus on one thing for very long, and thus it was hard to feel any emotion that might have come with the elusive thoughts.

The one thing he felt for certain was contentedness that he had done what he needed to do, though he couldn't quite remember what that was. As long as they were safe, he was happy, and he would stay in the inky blackness for as long as he needed to if that was what it took.

...Who were "_they"_? It bothered him that he couldn't call up any names or faces. He just knew that they were important to him. He was missing something big, he could feel it, but he couldn't summon the energy needed to fully think about what it was.

He felt so tired. The more he focused on himself, the more he realized that his physical being was really out of shape. There were sharp twinges of pain in his chest and his whole body ached. As he came into himself more his movements were less hindered, but he didn't even want to move because of the pain. Wouldn't it go away? He wanted it to. And the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he wanted out of the darkness as well. The sense of security he'd felt earlier vanished, replaced with a sort of desperation. He needed to get out. He needed to wake up.

_...wake up..._

_ Wake up, Jack._

A jolt of icy cold surged through his body and he gasped for the breath that rushed out at the shock of it. It didn't hurt or feel unnatural though. In fact, he liked it. It felt very natural, just as it should.

_Wake up, Jack._

Jack. Right, that was him. He wasn't drowning, he remembered, and he remembered who "they" were and what he had done. Were they alright? He needed to find out.

_Wake..._

He summoned his strength and opened his eyes.

**A/N:**

**Alright BobaAddict, a deal's a deal. Here's an update :D**

**Bleh. And here I wanted that ending to be good. Sorry for the long wait again. It's been a busy week. I'll try to finish up this story up as soon as I can so I can start my ParaNorman thingie.**

**Reply time!**

**Citrine Griffin: I saw it! asdfghkl it's so beautiful. Thank you so much. Guys, Citrine Griffin drew me a lovely sketch of Jack and Oliver. It's on her deviantART under the username CitrineG and the title Cool Uncle's Cool Uncle. It's great.**

**Luna Awesomesauce 1012: You're so weird. Why is reviewing on my story any different than reviewing on others? Why can't you be normal?!**

**StarStreakedSky: I have indeed heard the Stereotype Song. It is glorious. **

**BobaAddict: Why do we have all the same ideas? Human!Jack, time travel... It's insane. No worries though, I'm probably going to do my ParaNorman story before another RotG. I need to get it out of my system, so you can do whatever you want. Also, I still can't find your page because I am the biggest fail of a stalker ever.**

**SugarSweetObsessed: I would be happy if my writing put everyone on such an edge that they hated me for it. I'm glad that I can make people feel something with my writing.**

**VasHappeninTeam: Reviews are my bribes. Nice long, detailed, cheery reviews. Mmm, good.**

**asdfghjkl: Well yeah, I do remember posting about the whole Julie thing, I **_**am**_** pretty vocal about my utter hatred of that nickname, but who are you?! (You don't have to answer that...)**

**Thoytsi: Oh dear. I hope your hand feels better soon!**

** xX. Chu-Chan .Xx: Haha, my name is Julia. I'm pretty cool with most nicknames (like Jules, and Thoytsi calls me Julchen for some reason. Pronounced **_**yule-chen**_**; it's German), but Julie is the one I hate with a passion. I absolutely hate being called Julie. Like, I have nothing against the name itself, it's just not **_**my**_** name and I despise it as a nickname. **

**karasu99: That's terrible, I'm sorry. I hope you get over that soon. **

**paracuties: I do write Hetalia stories, but I haven't updated any of them since like...October or November. Rise of the Guardians got in the way, big time. I don't actually feel that bad about it, to be honest. Not many people read them. **

**Thanks to daughterofthehunt, Hunter-Re, Random Reader 17, purplepanda0822, pokesam, bedstories, RandomKrazyPerson, KarToon12, Guest, LiviahEternal, AliceUndergroundWorks, Sora Tayuya, Xanthera, Dragowolf, Alaia Skyhawk, megadracosaurus, Camelot Emrys, MechaBunny, NinjaDino721, hellraven-ovo, Eauingchun, Kaylee, LaurenFitz, WarriorLoverInc, fishy girly, Crickett5, Guest #2, Soshoryu, Guest #3, Q-A the Authoress, Serendipital, ICNyght, NoNameTheJellyfish, DoomCabbit, Mystery Girl Who Writes, KoiKyuuiKitai, Moonstar Daughter of Hades, KaiFudo16, TeddyBear98, OtakuAme, readandwrite4evernever20, Lovepuppy316, Sympathy for the Lost Love, OctoberThirtyFirst, CelticGirl7, Hummingbird101, Lindyn Guards, Miss Crazy Canadian, azwolfe, Novanto, to lazy to login, Aurum Le Greyhound, Link Fangirl01, YingYangProphocy, jamesprongslover123, Renegade, and Cool Cat!**

**Guys seriously, if there's one thing that Rise of the Guardians should have taught you it's that Jack has some issues with staying dead. Also, I'm evil, but I'm not THAT evil. Of course he was going to be brought back XD Sillies. So, he's awake! What will happen next, do you think?**


	24. Chapter 24

He was lying on his pond, staring up at the sky. Somehow he knew that the moment he'd awoken. A wave of nostalgia rushed over him as he remembered the last time he'd opened his eyes to see the comforting light of the moon, under similar circumstances. This time had its own differences though. For one, there was no fear or anxiety. Just acceptance and relief. Oh, and memories. That was always a good thing. Waking up as an amnesiac wasn't fun, and Jack would know.

He had died, he knew that for sure. It had hurt. But he was back now, and the pain was receding away with every breath he took in. Jack smiled to himself. It was weird how casually he thought of being brought back to life. In a way, he had kind of expected it to happen, and was now even more glad of the faith he had put in the Man in the Moon. He probably shouldn't get too comfortable with dying, though; even if it had happened twice already, the deity would probably get tired of bringing him back all the time.

Jack's peaceful thought process almost made him laugh out loud. After all the chaos of that night, he would have thought he'd be panicking a bit more. He couldn't make himself worry or think urgently, though. There was no point. He just knew everything was alright now.

He sat up slowly and stretched his sore arms, grunting softly as a joint popped into place. Eve really had done a number on him, hadn't she? Weird, he would have thought it would hurt more. But he really was feeling better aside from a few sharp twinges in his chest if he inhaled too deeply, and mild aches. The cold helped.

Wait. It was cold. More than cold, it was freezing, really. Probably below zero or somewhere around that temperature, yet it didn't bother Jack as it had been the past few days. It felt natural, even nice, just as it should. Just as he was used to. His bare feet were submerged in the snow and he wiggled his toes, grinning at the chill.

He clambered to his feet and looked around, noticing with a jolt that his staff had been lying next to him. He was naturally somewhat confused, as he very clearly remembered not having it with him when he ran out to face Eve, but in the end merely shrugged it off. It wasn't a big deal how it had gotten there; he expected that the Man in the Moon had something to do with it. After all, he could bring people back to life. Nothing was stopping the deity from grabbing a shaft of wood out from under a bed. Jack chuckled softly and bent down to scoop it up.

It reacted to his touch, frost patterns curling up the aged wood as his fingers gripped the shaft. Jack waved it absently and a blast of ice particles skittered through the air. His eyes widened in realization as it occurred to him what had happened, and he stared down at the staff in shock. After a moment, he bent down on his knees and brushed snow off the surface of the ice, staring down at his reflection much as he had after Eve first cast her spell on him.

In the end, the spell clearly hadn't worked. A wide grin spread across Jack's face as he took in his appearance, more familiar to him than the 'human' one that, in his opinion, no longer suited him. His hair was white, eyes blue, skin unnaturally pale. Bunnymund gave him a lot of ribbing about that last one, telling him he needed to get into the sun more. The Pooka also said that he looked like death warmed over, which Jack thought was amusing for more than one reason. He snorted at the memory and rolled his eyes upward, shaking his head.

The reality of the situation hit him then-he wasn't dead (again), he was back to normal, and at the moment nothing stop him from hunting up Eve again and kicking her ass. Assuming the situation called for it, of course; the Bennetts could have safely gotten the help of the Guardians and the witch could have given up or been defeated. Jack wasn't sure how long he'd been out, but it didn't appear to have been a long while. He was pretty certain it was the same night.

He glanced up at the sky and realized for the first time just how much he owed the Man in the Moon. "Thank you," he said quietly, his voice slightly strained and raspy when he spoke normally. He leaned on his staff and coughed a couple of times.

He'd stopped expecting an answer from the Man in the Moon a long time ago, and had only heard the deity's voice a grand total of twice in his life. Thus, the surprise of hearing a reply to his thanks nearly knocked the wind out of ancient voice echoed in his mind with the tone of a stern parent scolding a child, _"I have given you two lives already. Do not try for a third."_

And all Jack could think of to do was laugh lightly and embarrassedly scratch the back of his head saying, "Right, I'm sorry about that. Thanks again."

_"Everything will be explained. Do what you must."_

Jack thought about that. What did he have to do? There were so many things. Well, for starters, he should probably go make sure that the others made it to safety alright, then see if he could get in contact with the other Guardians if it turned out they weren't around after all. He could take care of any problems with Eve now too, since he was back to normal. And what a great feeling it was to know that.

But there wasn't time to play around with his powers as much as he would like. There would be time later, days and months and years to get reacquainted with himself (though it probably wouldn't take that long), so for now he needed to take care of the remaining problems in his life, and then everything could go back to normal. He grinned as he adjusted the grip on his staff and took off into the air with a small wave towards the moon, loving the feeling of the wind rushing past his face. As he rose higher and higher, he felt more at ease, and the thought crossed his mind that the looks on everyone's faces when they saw him would be nothing short of hilarious.

xXx

North frowned as he paced around the globe room, not sure what to think. The Man in the Moon hadn't answered him, which was definitely strange. Manny usually did answer North when the Russian asked him a question, and this time, with the matter of telling Jack about Eve's past, a simple yes or no would have sufficed. North couldn't understand for the life of him why the Man in the Moon would choose to withhold his answer.

It was dark in the globe room, the area only illuminated by the pinpricks of childrens' lights on the globe and the shining of the moonlight as it filtered in through the open gap in the ceiling. The yetis and elves were probably having a party down in the kitchens, but every once in a while one of them would scurry by carrying a plate of confectionaries.

He sighed and looked out of the window. Snow was gently falling outside, and he noted with mild interest that it hadn't done so in several days, not that it particularly mattered. North had thought that talking to Manny would give him a sense of purpose, make him feel useful, or at least give him something to do while Bunnymund and Tooth were out looking for Jack and Eve. He knew he probably shouldn't feel too disappointed; in the end, Manny always did have a good reason for everything he did or did not do. Everything would be explained soon. Or so he hoped.

A tendril of light suddenly appeared outside and North started in surprise as golden light illuminated the room. A moment later, the Sandman dropped in through the ceiling, his levitating cloud of dream sand disappearing as he lowered to the ground. The large Russian sighed in relief, though he wasn't sure why he'd been nervous or why Sandy was even there. He approached Sandy and said, "You surprised me, old friend. What brings you here?"

The Sandman looked anxious, and he seemed to be searching for the right way to explain his sudden appearance. After a long minute, the dream sand he used to communicate began taking shape, moving as fast as Sandy could make it as it twisted upwards into a tall, life-size human figure. It seemed female and North almost mistook it for Eve, but then realized that the figure was fuller and actually stood up straight. All at once, it hit him whom he was looking at.

"Mother Nature?" he asked softly, and Sandy nodded. "You ran all the way here to show me this...because...?"

The small man didn't even bother with the dream sand this time. He pointed to the figure of the woman, then gestured around the workshop.

"...Here?" North's eyes widened. "_She's_ coming _here? _Why?!_"_

Sandy just shrugged and Mother Nature's figure dropped and shifted into Eve's this time.

"Did Manny ask you to tell me this?"

A nod.

"How soon?"

No answer from the Sandman, which North took to mean he had no idea. He turned and strode out of the globe room, Sandy following close behind. He nearly tripped over an elf and when it turned around he snapped to it, "We're having company. _Very important _company, so get ready!"

The elf looked confused and pointed in the direction of the sitting room, where the voices of the Bennett family members could faintly be heard. North swallowed a rather rude exclamation. How could he have forgotten they were there?

"Alright," he said. Sandy looked up at him with sympathy. "I can work with this. It won't be so bad, I suppose."

Just then, one of the Bennett girls whose voice he couldn't fit to a face hollered out, "JACK, I AM GOING TO KILL YOU."

** A/N:**

**I don't like writing Mr. Man in the Moon. He is difficult. Everything about this chapter was more difficult than it should have been. It's (not) funny how the closer I get to finishing a story, the less motivation I have to actually write it. You'd think that with the end so near, I'd be trying to go faster. Sigh. Anyway, have a rushed, too-short chapter because I'm lazy. Gah. **

**Reply time.**

**daughterofthehunt: ****You know, if you just say something like that without giving any reason **_**why**_** you hate something someone else has put effort into, it is kind of hurtful. If you at least give a reason, I can look at it and see where I could improve. **

**BobaAddict: ****How are we not best friends by now? We're so similar, I'm just curious. **

**Lovepuppy316: ****You made me laugh so hard just now, with that. **

**Thoytsi****: All shall be explained with Eve, nobody worry :D I think you might actually be surprised, although some of you have made good guesses. And Catherine, how could I not love all the Hetalia on my dash? Season 5, bro. I want all of the Hetalia.**

**RandomKrazyPerson****: How do you kill something already dead? Well I saw Warm Bodies on Saturday with my friend and in that movie you had to destroy their head. It works like that in Shaun of the Dead, too. And probably every zombie movie ever.**

**asdfghjkl****: You scare me. A little bit. (Not in a bad way though, in a friendly way.) If you call me Julie I'll just take longer to update. I'll go on strike. Do not call me Julie. You. Will. Regret. It.**

**: That is so...weird... You know what would be freaky? If you were born in Washington State. **

**agent000****: I screencapped your review and now whenever I have a bad day I'm going to reread it because you are wonderful. Thank you so much. **

**Thanks to AIOFanNCRM, hellraven-ovo, azwolfe, Guest, Uniquely X, Cool Cat, Q-A the Authoress, SilverEyeShinobi, Yangu Fuyu, bug349, Red-hEadNightlOver, crickett5, fishy girly, .latchem, KaiFudo16, Camelot Emrys, Leafy Lincoln, Silver-09, readandwrite4evernever20, Aurum Le Greyhound, KoiKyuuiKitai, myrddin767, Reid Phantom, Lindyn Guards, StarStreakedSky, Alaia Skyhawk, TeddyBear98, VasHappeninTeam, Sora Moto, LiviahEternal, Gamma Cavy, CelticGirl7, Kaylee, Dragowolf, megadracosaurus, Eauingchun, Ejmaiclky9, Soshoryu, Lolxxx, Gurrbill, Guest #2, Link Fangirl01, Moonstar Daughter of Hades, Jess Violet, Aerrow4Ever, xKireyy, GhostGirl58, snow-in-my-room, InsaneKuroNeko, paracuties, and Renegade!**


	25. Chapter 25

Finding his way to the action, if it could even be called that, was far easier than Jack thought it would be. The winds were still ragged and unstable, and Jack was tossed around like a rag doll as he flew over the roofs of Burgess. He definitely didn't have as much control over the as he usually did, which likely meant that Eve was still around. She had more control over the wind than he did, after all, and would likely lead back to her. So, in the end, he decided to just let it take him whereever it was headed.

He narrowly avoided crashing into a few chimneys and solid walls as he hurtled through the air, tossed to and fro by the wind. It briefly passed his mind that maybe he ought to keep out of sight if he didn't want to be stabbed again, and noticed he was nearing the center of town. For a moment he was curious about the silence, when a bloodcurdling screech nearly knocked him out of the air. Jack bit back a holler of shock as the winds suddenly lightened, sending him in a dead plummet down towards the rooftops. As he fell he positioned himself properly with his staff (he'd fallen plenty of times before; he knew the procedure) and managed to get just enough control to cushion his landing on a sloped roof.

Jack grunted softly as he hit and nearly rolled off, but spread his limbs and eventually slid to a halt right at the edge. He allowed himself a small sigh of relief and shook himself to get rid of the lingering disorientation. He'd been lucky. A straight fall to the ground wouldn't have been good for him.

He took a few breaths and looked around.

"What was that scream?" he asked himself quietly. "It was somewhere close to here..."

The skies were clear, apart from snow being whipped around by the wind. The streets were empty and dead silent. That was strange. Even though it was past midnight on Christmas, there were bound to be at least a few people stumbling out of bars or something. The stillness was unnerving, and Jack had expected it to be a bit noisier, if only because Eve was wreaking havoc. He frowned. Did this mean she wasn't really around? Then why were the winds so difficult, if she wasn't? Maybe it was just him. He had only just gotten his powers back, after all; it wasn't a bad bet to assume he just hadn't gotten full control over them yet. Still, the paranoia wouldn't leave him alone.

He stood up slowly, taking care to not topple off the roof. The winds died down a bit and, when he strained his ears, Jack could faintly hear voices. He crawled up to the top and looked down into the street. The darkness made it difficult to see anything, but he could just barely make out two silhouettes outlined by the moonlight. Jack squinted, and found that one of them wasn't touching the ground and the other had long rabbit ears. Suddenly feeling much more optimistic about his situation, he silently jumped into the air and hurriedly flew to a closer rooftop as to hear what they were saying.

"-thought we were supposed to keep our bloody voices down," Bunnymund whispered. "Who knows what's around here right now?"

Jack smiled to himself and scooped up a handful of snow.

"I couldn't help it!" Tooth insisted. "I'm just really on edge right now. And we haven't even seen anything! No Eve, no Jack, nothing!"

Bunnymund let out a long breath. "I know, I know. But we have to keep our heads. We could get attacked out of the blue or-"

He was cut off by a snowball flying out of the darkness and hitting him in the face.

Bunnymund swore loudly and stumbled back, wiping snow out of his fur, and Tooth shrieked and looked around in bewilderment. Jack burst into laughter and dropped down from the roof.

The two other Guardians let out identical yells of shock when they saw him, and that amused the winter spirit even more. He knew everyone's reactions were going to make him laugh.

Jack grinned cheerily, "Hey there!"

After a long moment of silence and gaping, the two shook themselves and made a heroic effort to get their minds in order.

"You're late," Bunnymund snapped finally, crossing his arms.

Tooth looked very worried. "You're covered in blood!"

"Where the _hell_ were you?"

"And...and you're back to normal!" Tooth's eyes widened and a bright smile spread across her face. "You're back to normal!" she said again, with more excitement. She moved forward to hug him, eyed the dark crimson stain on the front of his hoodie, and backtracked so quickly it was almost comical.

"We'll save that for later," she laughed nervously. "Are you alright?"

Jack stared flatly at the Easter Bunny. "Hey, see, Tooth has her priorities in order. It's nice to see you too, kangaroo."

"Can it, Frostbite." Bunnymund rolled his eyes, then moaned, "Fine, fine. Nice to see you. I don't suppose you're going to answer the question, though?"

"Well, since you asked so nicely..."

Tooth sighed as the two fell back into their usual banter. Nothing had changed at all.

"_Jack," _she said tiredly, and the winter spirit cut off and had the decency to look sheepish.

"Sorry," he apologized with a small smile. "I'm fine, really. Just a little sore here and there, and I'm really tired, and also kind of feel like I'm about to explode."

"Explode?!"

"Not in a bad way!" Jack raised his hands defensively. "I swear, it's not bad! I just feel like how I do when I bottle up my magic for a long time. Which I have been doing, I guess, in a way. I need to go out and make a blizzard or two, and then I'll be completely better. Promise." He rubbed his eyes. "It'll probably have to wait, though. I'm worried-"

"Jamie and his family are fine," Tooth interjected, seeing where this was going. "We found them in the woods and took them to North's place."

Jack's shoulders visibly relaxed. "Good. Thanks a lot, you guys. I owe you one. I have some questions of my own now, though."

"Figured you would," Bunnymund replied. "What is it?"

"If the Bennetts are fine, where's Eve? Did you find her at all? I heard a scream as I was coming down here and thought someone was dying or something."

Bunnymund and Tooth exchanged a glance, then Tooth said, "It's really strange. We thought we saw her earlier, and the Bennetts thought definitely thought she was coming after them when they ran into the woods, but we've been looking around for ages and haven't caught a glimpse of her at all. It's like she just vanished into thin air. And, uh..." She coughed awkwardly. "That scream earlier was me. I thought something was sneaking up behind us, so..."

"So your solution was to scream?" Jack struggled to contain his laughter as Tooth's face flushed pink with embarrassment. "It knocked me out of the air. That's pretty shrill, don't you think?"

"Be nice," she muttered, swatting his arm.

Jack cleared his throat and fell back into concentration. "Why is Eve gone, though? That doesn't make any sense. Are you sure you didn't just miss her along the way?"

"Pretty sure, mate," Bunnymund answered. "I have a feeling she wouldn't just give up the chance to rub her 'victory' in our faces. And you know, it might be a good thing that she's not around for you to get in a fight with. You're practically swaying on your feet." He raised his eyebrows at the winter spirit, who looked exhausted and was tilted visibly to one side.

Jack blinked and immediately stopped leaning on his staff for support. "Am not. I'm just tired, is all. I did want a fight though. This all seems too easy and anticlimatic."

"_Anticlimatic?" _The Pooka grinned. "You clearly read too much, using a word like that. Not everything is going to end with a bang, not even situations like this.

"Hey, I got stabbed. I think I'm entitled to one good hit at her. Just one. After everything that's happened, it really seems like this is ending too fast." Jack rubbed his eyes. "I dunno, I guess I just keep expecting Eve to pop out of the shadows and do me in again. God, I want to punch her."

"Maybe someone else stepped in and took care of her?" Tooth suggested, ignoring the last comment. "I don't know who it might have been, but I think it makes things easier for us. Nobody's going to get done in," she added with a small smile.

Jack shrugged and mumbled, "Still wish I could hit her..."

"Who knows? Maybe you will be able to," the fairy smiled. "For now, should we head back up to the North Pole? Jamie and the others are probably worried."

* * *

Jamie was worried. Very much so, in fact.

It had been over an hour and a half since they'd been dropped off at Santoff Clausen, and he was getting very restless and jittery. What was taking them so long? Baby Tooth had flown in earlier, looking extremely irritated and put out. Jamie guessed aloud that she had been sent back for some reason, and she'd nodded moodily in confirmation. He wanted to know why she was back, but her inability to speak or write put their attempts to communicate at a standstill. It was frustrating beyond belief, and Jamie felt like he was about to die from the anticipation.

The other members of his family seemed to be faring better than him, at least. One by one they had succumbed to the wonders of Santoff Clausen, wandering around and taking in everything they could. Jamie wondered why he was not doing the same; after all, he was the one most known in his family and among his friends for loving magical things and believing in them with all his heart. But for some reason, he was still sitting in the same armchair he'd slumped down in upon arriving at the workshop. He wasn't marvelling at the massive tree in the globe room with his uncle and David, nor was he having fun bunting the elves around like Amy and Chris seemed to be doing with Sophie. He just sat, twisting the hem on his nightshirt as he watched Baby Tooth snuggle in with Brianna, who hadn't moved from her seat as well.

It was a funny thing, the way Baby Tooth had latched onto his older cousin. None of them could explain it when the little fairy had flown in, cast a dark look around the room, and immediately made a beeline to Brianna. Brianna herself was absolutely bewildered and she'd gotten a large amount of teasing from Amy, but Baby Tooth had refused to move from her spot on the teenager's lap. Jamie suspected it to be the reason why Brianna hadn't gotten up to look around the workshop with the others. She didn't want to disrupt Baby Tooth, who had fallen asleep in her hands. As he watched, Brianna softly stroked the fairy's green feathers with a thinly-veiled look of wonder on her usually frowning face.

Jamie sighed heavily and looked out the window for the millionth time, suppressing a groan when all he saw was, as usual, the snow swirling in the darkness. He believed the Guardians when they said Jack would be fine, but that didn't make the wait any easier. He thought about getting up to go ask North if he'd seen or heard anything, but the large Russian had all but vanished. Eventually a yeti hurried past the door, but North was nowhere to be seen. Had something happened? Jamie felt apprehension curl in his stomach. Maybe something had happened and North hadn't told them? A thousand possibilities swirled through Jamie's mind and he dropped his head into his hands. His imagination was just making things worse.

He sat like that for a while, listening to the crackling of the fire and the voices of his family in the main part of the workshop. Jamie wanted to join them, he really did, but he knew he wouldn't be able to make himself enjoy anything until Jack was there.

A sharp gasp caught his attention and he glanced up at Brianna, whose eyes were wide, staring fixatedly at a spot on the floor. Jamie followed her gaze and let out a holler as a tunnel opened up in the sitting room carpet and Bunnymund hopped out, followed by Tooth.

"Agh," she grimaced, brushing dirt off her feathers. "Your tunnels are always so dirty, Bunny."

"Not much I can do about that," Bunnymund replied crossly. He glanced around the room and noticed Jamie and Brianna, "Hey you two."

"You're back!" Jamie grinned, bouncing on his heels. Oliver and the others poked their heads through the door, curious at the source of the noise, and hurried in when they saw who it was.

"Bunny!" Sophie squealed, scurrying forward to hug the Pooka. "I missed you!"

"I missed you too," he chuckled, patting her head.

Jamie craned his neck to look behind them. "Where's Jack? Isn't he with you?"

Bunnymund glanced back. "Oh yeah." He called down the tunnel, "Did you get stuck or something? Need any help?"

"Not from you," a irritated voice snapped from the darkness, and Jamie's happiness spiked dramatically upwards when Jack's familiar white head popped out of the hole.

* * *

**A/N:**

**To anyone who might have been looking forward to a big fight scene: I can't write those, sorry. I can't write them **_**at all. **_**So I took the easy route and everything will be explained next chapter. In fact, part of the reason I had trouble with this chapter was because I was trying to write this big fight scene and it just wasn't working. Nope. **

**Okay guys. Yes, I'm a horrible person for not updating in so long, and I said I would update Saturday and I didn't. But only the Saturday thing was really my fault! The rest of the time I was ridiculously stressed out with school and other matters. (I won't go into the details, just know that I'm surprised I haven't been crushed by the pressure.)**

**I can't promise quick updates. Please just understand that my situation isn't allowing me a lot of writing time right now. You don't need to be worried that it's over, because I will say something if it is. Trust me, this is the first story I've ever gotten close to finishing. When it's done, I'm going to make it a hell of a big deal.**

**You don't have to message me about updates, or sell your soul, or stalk through my other stories. You don't have to do any of that, because I **_**know**_**. I read **_**every single review I get, **_**believe it or not. There's only like two or three chapters left, anyway.**

**On the plus side I finally figured out goddamn single-line breaks. It took me two years and instructions from another person, but I finally got it. I was furious when I found out how simple it is. **

**Replies!**

**HatchDesu: Yeah, I know I didn't give Jack much of a chance, but the point was that he wanted Eve to go away without any problems aside from, well, his own death. Just being all "Hey, here I am!" was easier than trying to fight her off.**

**AOIFanNCRM: Let's just say that Jamie's mom changed their names to Bennett after her seperation from their dad. It must have been a hell of a nasty divorce, huh? I mean, my parents had a nasty divorce but I never felt the need to change my last name, so...yeah. Bad divorce.**

**Luna Awesomesauce 1012: How very eloquent. I'm proud of you.**

**agent000: You're the nicest reviewer I've ever gotten, so yeah. I actually saved your review and now I read it whenever I'm having a hard time. Thank you.**

**darkryubaby: Brianna is a nice name! I like it. And I dunno why that is, but I happen to like my OC Brianna. She's fun to write, and it's not like she's a bad person.**

**RandomKrazyPerson: BobaAddict and I have decided that I am her non-Asian, much taller, blonde, two-years-older twin sister who lives in Montana. Yeah. We amuse each other.**

**azwolfe: Is Pitch's daughter's name Seraphina? I must confess, I haven't read most of the books. I've just spoiled myself enough to know that she is his daughter.**

**Thanks to the many Guests, HatchDesu, Moriviv, Nika Nicolette, Ironic-Sarcasm, VasHappeninTeam, StayGoneStayClean, Kaylee, Renegade, Cool Cat, Guest Fan, snowflake1814, Soshoryu, Empty Thoughts, Awesomegirl, Link Fangirl 01, Arielle, Yami's Devil, khoathkeeper13, Here To Annoy, SilverSlickRaindrops, karasu99, Dragowolf, UnitedKingdomrules, HarmonySoundown, Wisteria Moonseed, Reid Phantom, CelticGirl7, Random Reader 17, bug349, StarStreakedSky, GhostGirl58, Nicole Worley, AutumnHoneyTea, Camelot Emrys, JackFrost, LovingAnime97, MechaBunny, Megadracosaurus, Alaia Skyhawk, LiviahEternal, Dark Inu Fan, Minimuffin18, LunaTheLoneWolf, TeddyBear98, feathered moon wings, KaiFudo16, hellraven-ovo, Mystery Girl Who Writes, Lovepuppy316, Aurum Le Greyhound, readandwrite4evernever20, Silver-09, Sora Tayuya, Q-A the Authoress, Sandblasted-Kitten, eeveefairysparkle, daughterofthehunt, and art chic 99.**

**Like I said before, everything will be explained next chapter. Everything. Mother Nature will get to speak and all that. Please, nobody give me crap about the quality of this chapter. I already know.**


	26. Chapter 26

Jamie could barely contain his happiness and excitement and could barely refrain from tackling Jack on the spot as the winter spirit heaved himself out of Bunnymund's tunnel, which quickly closed up behind him. Jack let out a huff of breath and brushed himself off, and that was when Jamie and Sophie couldn't help themselves any longer and jumped on him while the rest of their family members looked to find the motivation to pick their jaws up off the floor.

Jack made a funny high-pitched noise when Jamie and Sophie's arms tightened around his midsection and it occured to the boy that they were probably suffocating him, but honestly, Jamie couldn't find himself caring much. After everything Jack had put them through that night, he could deal with having the air squeezed out of him by the two of them. In the backround, Tooth smiled and Bunnymund muttered something about escaping and going to find North before slipping out the door.

The winter spirit laughed lightly and returned the hug. "Hey guys. Long time, no see."

Baby Tooth chirped excitedly at him, and he said, "Hey sweetie. You did a good job getting help. Knew I could count on you."

She gave him a _Well, duh _expression before settling down onto her rightful perch on the top of his head. Jack snorted and turned his attention back to the Bennetts. He felt a wave of relief wash through him; he hadn't had any doubt in his fellow Guardians, but it was really good to see that the family had made it away from Eve without a scratch on any one of them.

"You'rebackandyou'reokayImeanIdidn'treallythinkyouwereactuallyd eadbutitwasfreakyanywaysI'mgladtoseeyou," Jamie let out in one long rush, barely pausing to draw breath.

"Whoa, whoa." Jack carefully pried the siblings' arms from around his waist and stepped back with a grin. "Calm down. Of course I'm okay, didn't I say I would be? I don't lie about these things."

"I know," Jamie mumbled sheepishly. "Hi."

"Hi."

"You're bloody and gross," Sophie piped up bluntly. "It's all over your sweatshirt and everything."

Jack grimaced and brushed a few dark flecks from the fabric of his hoodie. "Yeah, I know. It's a shame, I liked this. It wasn't that old either. I'll have to get something new now."

It was only then he seemed to notice the rest of the family members, who were still staring at him as though he'd suddenly grown three extra heads. He supposed he couldn't blame them; even if North and the other Guardians had comforted them and led them to think he'd be alright, in their eyes he had, technically, just risen from the dead. And he guessed that his sudden change of appearance had something to do with it, too.

"What's up?" he asked brightly.

In hindsight, that probably wasn't the best greeting.

The only one who reacted was Amelia, and she did not react well. Her face turned as red as her hair and she marched up to the winter spirit and slapped him upside the head.

Jack stumbled back. He had not been expecting that. "What was that for?!"

"What was that for?!" she shot back with a raised voice, borderline yelling. "What was it _for_?! What the hell do you think?!"

"I can think of a lot of things, you're going to have to be more specific," Jack told her sardonically, keeping a wary eye on the teen as she visibly struggled with the urge to hit him again. He tightened his grip on his staff. If he was going to get killed yet again, he might as well go down fighting.

Amy scowled furiously at him. "You know what I mean, you little jerk! You go and get yourself killed-and we watched it happen, by the way-make us worry a _whole damn lot, _and then you suddenly pop back in here and all you can say is _Hey, what's up_?!" You are an irresponsible little prick and you deserve more than one hit, and...and..." She appeared to run out of steam for a moment, giving him a scathing once-over, before spitting finally spitting out, _"And you're a freaking albino!"_

Jack stared at her incredulously. "How is that last thing my fault?"

He looked to the other Bennetts for help (Oliver and Chris were looking like they were trying not to laugh, Brianna actually looked rather bored, and Jamie, Sophie, and David looked like they didn't know what to think about what was happening). Chris just shrugged and said, "It is kind of weird. Your hair now, I mean."

"Yeah, but I shouldn't get attacked over it," the winter spirit muttered. "It's natural. It just sort of came with the whole ice and snow thing. To be honest, all the brown was weird for me."

Amy huffed and, to his relief, stepped back and crossed her arms. "I'm still not happy with you."

"Interestingly enough," Oliver chipped in, raising his eyebrows at his niece, "she's the only one who isn't. I imagine the rest of us are pretty happy to see that you're alright."

"I'm happy about it too!" Amy retorted indignantly. "I'm just mad at the same time!"

Nobody else got a chance to respond before heavy footfalls were heard outside the door and North hurried in, barely even glancing at Jack before pulling him into a tight hug.

"There he is!" the large Russian chuckled. "I told them so!"

Bunnymund, who had followed North in, noticed Jack's face turning an interesting shade of blue and commented mildly, "You might wanna let him go if you don't want him to die of asphyxiation."

Jack found himself suddenly dropped to the floor and he stumbled back, gasping for air. "H-Hey North. Nice to see you."

"And you too," North replied, clapping him on the shoulder. "Sandy was here a few minutes ago, but he had to get back to his job. But there is someone else here who'd like to have a word."

Tooth fluttered over, "Who is it?"

"You'll see," was the cryptic answer. North beckoned for Jack to follow him out the door, and he did, with the rest of the inhabitants of the sitting room trailing curiously behind. North led them down the hall and up a small flight of stairs to yet another room with a couple of chairs and a large window that led out to a balcony. This room was much smaller than the last, and North and Bunnymund ducked out almost upon arrival. There was someone else in the room, and she stood and turned to face them. The Bennets and Tooth retreated back into a corner as the woman approached, wanting to keep out of the way for reasons they could not understand.

She was someone Jack had never seen before, but her voice rang with a warm familiarity when she said, "Hello. I've been meaning to speak with you for some time now." She nodded respectfully in the Tooth Fairy's direction, "Toothiana."

Tooth smiled and nodded back. "Hello yourself. This is a surprise."

Jack blinked, taking in the woman in front of him. She was beautiful in a more handsome, unconventional way; tall and thin, with long, sleek black hair and an olive complexion. With her almond gold eyes and broad, flat nose, she looked vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place where he'd seen someone like her.

"Uh..." he began, trying not to sound too confused. It didn't work. "Who are you?"

Her thin lips quirked up in a small smile. "I don't believe we've met, Jack Frost. For the most part, I am called Mother Nature."

Someone in the back-Jack couldn't tell if it was Amy or Brianna-exclaimed "Holy _shit_."

Jack had to fight to keep a straight face as he said, "You're right, we haven't met. Nice to meet you, I guess. You seem to know me, so I'm guessing this isn't just a random visit to just say hi."

"Many people know you," Mother Nature replied, ignoring the previous vulgarity as she smoothed some nonexistant wrinkles on her elegent green dress. "However, you are correct. This is not a random visit; I have several things I would like to discuss with you."

She gestured to the armchairs by the fire, and not seeing an alternative, Jack hesitantly sat down. He felt he had a right to be wary of strange nature spirits he didn't know well, considering the events of that night, but at the same time, North _had_ let her in to talk to him, and she didn't seem to be hostile. It was probably in his best interest to listen to her.

Mother Nature sat in the chair opposite him, while everyone else hung around in the shadows. They seemed to sense that she didn't really want to deal with any of them, and her purpose was with Jack and Jack alone. Under other circumstances maybe she might have been more polite, but at the moment it looked as though she was all business.

"I won't beat around the bush," she began as a preamble. "I doubt you'd like that."

"I would appreciate if you didn't," Jack agreed.

"Alright then." She took a deep breath and her shoulders straightened. "I have come to issue a formal apology for the actions of Evangeline Blackburne, the Spirit of Autumn. She is a particular charge of mine and her behavior this past week has been unexcusable. I take full responsibility, and Eve has been taken into my custody and awaits punishment at my domain."

Jack raised his eyebrows, stunned. That was frankly quite unexpected, but at least now he knew why the autumn spirit had disappeared so mysteriously. He raised his hand. "I have a couple questions over here."

"I imagined you would have some," Mother Nature replied, offering up a strained smile once again. "What are they?"

"First of all, _your_ charge? I thought all spirits, including the nature ones like us, were chosen by the Man in the Moon. Second, and I know it's none of my business, but what's the story behind 'Evangeline Blackburne'? Why is she your responsibility?" Jack frowned. "No offense or anything, but despite your name, I've heard your less of a seasonal spirit and more like...uh..."

"There are only four seasonal spirits, and I am not one of them," Mother Nature confirmed. "My talents are more in tune with the elements and natural items themselves, such as plants and weather." She sighed heavily. "By all accounts, I'm on the same level as you seasons. I shouldn't have had the authority to do what was done."

"Which was what, exactly?"

Her face took on a mournful expression. "In the year 1575 Evangeline Blackburne, or Eve, as you know her, was put on trial for witchcraft. In those days even simple fortunetelling was condemnable and the trials could hardly be considered fair."

"Like Salem," Oliver couldn't resist chipping in from the back. "It was because of all the religious piousness that was going on during the Dark Ages and the centuries after, especially in Europe. That passed over to America, eventually. It was big with the Puritans in Massachusetts, around 1692."

Jack took a moment to silently be grateful he'd been born three years later to laid-back Quakers in Pennsylvania.

Mother Nature sent a respectful nod in Oliver's direction. "Yes, just as you said. I don't know if Eve truly practiced what could legitimately be considered witchcraft, or if she was just a mere fortune teller or an innocent woman. I didn't know much about her at all. I was merely passing through when I came across her being arrested."

She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "She was screaming, begging to be released and insisting she had comitted no crime. Nobody believed her and were flinging accusations of her heresy left and right. I myself don't believe she was a bad person at all. She was just...misunderstood, and in a horrible position at the wrong time... It...reminded me of someone I used to know. I wanted to save her as I could not save them, to give her another chance at life, to do better for herself.

"Her trial and subsequent execution were not held until the next day, and so that night I pled to Tsar Lunar-"

"Tsar Lunar?" Jack interrupted.

"The Man in the Moon," Tooth supplied helpfully, speaking up for the first time since Mother Nature entered the room.

"He has a name?"

Mother Nature cleared her throat pointedly and Jack fell silent once more. "Thank you. As I was saying, I pled to Tsar Lunar to save her, turn her immortal, do anything he could. He was hesitant, naturally, as he always chose us spirits with great care. I suggested a simpler job that did not involve much social interaction, such as one dealing with nature, and told him I would take responsibility for Eve and make certain she didn't go astray in the event she proved to not have the required capabilities. Eventually, he agreed.

"The time came for Eve's trial and execution. Her desperation was gone, replaced with a spitting rage. She was convicted and sentenced to burn at the stake. In hindsight," Mother Nature added dryly, "those probably weren't the ideal conditions for the creation of an immortal. When all was said and done she turned out much worse than I had expected."

"No kidding," Brianna said suddenly, stepping forward and crossing her arms. "Sorry lady, but you really could have picked better. I mean, Eve's totally nuts, what with the whole let's-kill-Jack thing, and I bet that's not even all of it. She just carries around a knife with her."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "I thought you didn't like me."

He was ignored. Mother Nature locked gazes with Brianna and replied, "You're absolutely right. I was in the wrong, blinded by my own sense of naive justice. I should have realized she would cause larger problems in the future the moment she began showing signs of her severe mental instability, but I convinced myself that she would change given time and experience. I was mistaken, and now you-" she gestured to Jack "-have paid the price."

Jack stuck his hands in his hoodie pocket and casually leaned back. "Well to be fair to you, a lot of this whole incident was caused by my own stupidity. You'd think that after three hundred years of nobody liking me I'd have learned to watch out for myself a bit. I probably wouldn't have been hurt at all if I'd thought things through a little more."

The woman briefly looked surprised at his honesty, before her face reformed back into the solemn mask she wore before. "Perhaps. But in the end, Eve is my responsibility and I shall be the one to deal with the consequences."

Jamie shyly stepped forward. "Uh, can we know something?" he asked tentatively, "What are the consequences going to be? What's going to happen to her?"

Mother Nature's breath rushed out. "I suppose I'll let Tsar Lunar deal with her. I doubt he'll permit her to continue her life as the Spirit of Autumn, not after the harm she's caused. Attacking a fellow spirit, let alone a Guardian, is a serious offence. Fortunately, not much long-term damage seems to have been done on you, Jack."

"Nah, I'm fine," Jack assured her, waving a flippant hand. "A little sleep-deprived, maybe, and I need to change my clothes and shower or something, and I would really like to go out and stir up some blizzards, but other than that I'm fully functional. Don't worry too much about it." He decided he wasn't interested in letting this woman know about the dreams he'd been having whenever he was able to sleep. Only time would tell if he would still them after returning back to his normal, wintery state.

"Can you shower?" Amy asked with interest. "Wouldn't the water, like, freeze or something?"

"These are the questions that define a generation," Jack said to his fellow nature spirit, grinning without looking back at Amy. "Clearly, they're fine as well. You don't have to worry about them either."

Mother Nature didn't look convinced as she stood and folded her hands behind her back. "I honestly wasn't worried about your friends. You are obviously their line of defense, and I'd be lying if I said I thought you weren't reliable." She bowed her dark head a bit. "Once again, I apologize for what has happened to you. Thank you for being so understanding. At the end of this night, I imagine the Man in the Moon will be on the lookout for another autumn spirit."

"...Is Eve going to die?" he couldn't help but ask.

She shrugged. "I do not know. Perhaps. Maybe she will simply live out the rest of her life as a human, aging normally. We'll have to see."

"Right," Jack said, running a hand through his hair. "I hope it's nothing too bad, like crumbling into dust or whatever. When it comes down to it..." He cast a glance around the room, at all the Bennett relatives, and lowered his voice. "Being human for a bit...it sucked, but it wasn't like there weren't good things too. I guess I have Eve to thank for that; this opened my eyes to a few things."

Mother Nature gave him a curious look, but didn't press the matter. Jack was glad she didn't. He didn't know her well enough, even if she seemed fairly likeable at this point in time, and he doubted he'd even tell the other Guardians about this. 'This' being his revent discoveries. If he hadn't been turned human, odds were he would never know he still had family members alive, people descended from his baby sister. The idea was an oddly comforting one, and one he wasn't entirely ready to share with anyone. Hell, he hadn't even told anyone other than Jamie Rosie's name. He couldn't help but smile.

"I am going to take my leave," Mother Nature said. "Perhaps I'll see you again in the future." She turned to Tooth, "It was nice to see you and the others again."

"Yes it was," Tooth smiled. "Have a safe trip, I'll tell them you said goodbye."

Mother Nature nodded, and after giving Jack a small wave, she strode over to the large window, opened it, and jumped out into the wind. Within moments she was out of sight, disappearing in the darkness and swirling snow.

There was a long silence before Chris said, "Well...that was interesting."

Jack snagged a mug of eggnog and flopped down onto his chair with a heavy sigh. "I thought it was kind of weird at first, since she just popped out of nowhere. She reminds me of someone, too." He took a long drink, lost in thought.

"She's Pitch Black's daughter," Tooth told him mildly, settling down into her own chair.

Jack spat out his drink and without any tone or change of expression whatsoever he replied, "What."

"The Boogeyman has a daughter?!" Jamie exclaimed, eyes wide.

Jack sat up, "Someone had a kid with _Pitch?" _

He thought about the implications of that a bit harder. "What was she doing four years ago? I feel like she would have been pretty freaking helpful when Pitch went off the deep end!"

"From what I've seen and heard, they have a very strained relationship," Tooth answered. "They never speak and actively avoid each other. It's not hard, considering their roles are very different. And you know, he never used to be the Boogeyman, just like I never used to be the Tooth Fairy and you never used to be Jack Frost. Seraphina was born before all that happened."

"Seraphina, huh?" Jack shrugged. "Oh well. Stuff happens, I know that."

Chris and Amy exchanged a glance and Amy said, "I'm so lost."

Oliver checked his watch. "It's getting close to four in the morning back home, you know. We might want to start thinking about heading back. Susan and the others will get worried if they wake up and half of the family is missing." As he said that, Sophie let out a huge yawn, and everyone realized just how tired they were. They had been up the majority of the night, after all.

David spoke up, "I wonder how she'll react when she sees you, Jack."

"I bet she'll freak out and wonder how your hair changed color so quickly in one night," Chris laughed. "Hell, our mom is going to freak. You might wanna change your clothes first, though."

The family snickered, but Jamie looked at Jack and saw he had gone very still and somehow paler than he usually was. The winter spirit had a stricken look on his face and his eyes were widening with a horrified realization. He turned to Jamie and Tooth, "Oh boy. This is going to be difficult."

"Why?" Brianna frowned, prodding Baby Tooth awake as she asked.

He dropped his head into his hands, nearly toppling Baby Tooth to the floor, and repeated "Ohhh boy. I hate my life."

"What's the problem?" Oliver asked.

"She's not going to see me. Nobody outside the seven of you are."

"What do you mean?"

Jack ran his hands through his hair. "The problem is, I'm kind of invisible."

* * *

**A/N:**

**Look at all that book-canon. Yes, it is canon that Mother Nature is Pitch's daughter. I know she died after he became the Nightmare King, but I don't know how or why she got turned into a spirit. I haven't read that far, I've just spoiled myself enough to know the situation between the two of them. I don't even know her appearance or name, if she even has one. One of my reviewers just mentioned the name Seraphina in regards to Mother Nature and I liked it, so. Yeah. The name **_**Tsar Lunar **_**is book-canon as well.**

**Oh, and if it wasn't clear, the one who shouted that she was going to kill Jack was Amy. Girl has a temper on her. Like her mom. **

**Welp, I'm home sick today. Again. I literally cannot go more than two months without something affecting my health and well-being in some way or another. But it's not so bad; it gave me time to finish this chapter and start up the next one, at least. **

**Not many replies this time. **

**TomatoSoupful: ****There is a button right at the top of the document manager that you click and it'll insert a single like break. If you hover over it, it'll say "Insert horizontal line." IT'S JUST ONE SIMPLE BUTTON ASDFGHJKL I HATE MY LIFE.**

**. .ice: ****Well, now I really want to know what you have to say about this story. Consider this update a bribe because I am very curious. Speaking of bribe, BobaAddict now owes me a Powerless Guardian chapter, muahahaha. **

**Thanks to Dude, CelticGirl7, TeddyBear98, Nika Nicolette, The Third Biker Scholar, CoolCat, RandomKrazyPerson, Mokuren no Ken, Alaia Skyhawk, hellraven-ovo, Lady Isaiah, Reid Phantom, Dragowolf, CrystalxRose, EpicDetour9, DeimosPhobos, Camelot Emrys, tsuki107, Aurum Le Greyhound, Sora Tayuya, agent000, readandwrite4evernever20, bug349, KaiFudo16, Dark Inu Fan, Crickett5, Q-A the Authoress, InsaneKuroNeko, Zorua Illusion, snowflake13300, DoomCabbit, eeveefairysparkle, azwolfe, Lovepuppy316, naien543, flowerpower71, Eauingchun, Renegade, likhitata, Stormgirl415, the Guests, .26, Yami's Devil, Autobot traitor, MelTheAngryVegan, Moonstar Daughter of Hades, MagicGold34, Random Reader 17, Dragon260, Forever Frosted, The-girl-with-purple-eyes, randomobsession123, kazune1988, Lokithenightfury, and daughterofthehunt.**

**The next chapter, I believe, is the last one. Will Susan Bennett believe in Jack Frost or not?**


	27. Chapter 27

"What do you mean, invisible?" Oliver asked as Jack paced back and forth across the floor, muttering to himself. "We can see you just fine."

"Yeah, well...good for you," Jack said distantly, not even glancing at the man. "How are we going to make this work...?"

Oliver turned to Tooth, "Could you explain, please?"

Tooth nodded and cast a sympathetic glance in Jack's direction. "Of course. You see, when you're like us, you can only be seen by certain people. That is to say, you have to believe in us to see us. Otherwise we're invisible. We can't be seen, heard, or felt."

"Remember when that witch showed up?" Jamie piped up, "And you guys couldn't see her until Jack made you believe?"

"How does that work, though?" Amy frowned. "I mean, what if you're just walking on the street and someone runs into you?"

"That wouldn't happen," Tooth said softly. Jack had stopped pacing for the moment and now stood looking rather uncomfortable. "You'd go through us."

"Yikes. How does that feel?

Jack and Tooth exchanged a meaningful look and both shuddered simultaneously.

"It doesn't feel good," Jack answered. "You feel weightless, like you've come apart and then you fly back together. It's disorienting and honestly kind of hurts. Makes you wanna puke..."

He began walking back and forth again, absently freezing a passing elf with his staff as he was prone to doing around the Pole. "The problem is, Susan can't see me and neither can anyone else in that house, not with me back to my normal self. It'll look like I've just up and ran off. Which isn't too far from the truth, I guess."

"Why don't we just tell Aunt Susan the truth?" Brianna asked, sounding genuinly curious and confused without any sign of her usual sarcasm. "Wouldn't she believe us if we all explained together?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Jack shrugged. "But there are a lot of things we have to consider. For starters, I don't feel all that great. When I go too long without using my powers, they get too bottled up and I have to let off steam. I didn't think my being human would have the same effect, but it has and now I really, really need to go out and...I dunno, bury something in a blizzard."

"How long will that take, though?" Oliver asked. "I mean how long does it usually take when you have to 'blow off steam'?"

Jack bit his lip uncertainly. "Uh...a full day at the least, three or four at the most." Catching the looks of those around him he added, "It's not like I can help it! Winter storms are nuts and I'm the one who's supposed to spread them around. I can't just stop doing my job."

"So how do we explain to Aunt Susan that you're suddenly missing for one to three days?" Brianna tugged on a lock of her long brown hair, nervously twisting it around her fingers. "For all we know, she'll freak and call the police and organize a manhunt or something."

"And our mom will get unbearable," Chris pointed out. He and his siblings grimaced at the thought. "We won't be able to live with her for days until you get back."

"Then there's the issue of actually getting her to see you once you are back," Oliver added. "You're right, this is an issue..."

"I usually am right about these things," Jack told him dryly.

"And there's one more thing, too." Oliver leaned casually against the wall and crossed his arms, raising his eyebrows at the winter spirit.

Jack blinked. "What?"

Amy seemed to catch on quickly. "Ohhh, right! _That._" She grinned wickedly at Jack and fell silent once more, leaving him more confused than he had been at the start of this conversation.

"You keep a lot of secrets, huh?"

"Okay, seriously," came the cross response, "What do you mean?!"

Chris rolled his eyes. "Guys, stop messing with him. Jack, they're talking about how you're apparently distantly related to us on our mom's side and are our ancient great-something uncle."

There was a beat of silence, then Jack spun and snapped at Jamie, "You _told them?!"_

The boy raised his hands defensively, "I didn't!"

Jack's furious look turned to Sophie, who shrugged innocently.

"You didn't tell me this," Tooth commented mildly.

"Well I haven't really had the time, have I?" Jack groaned and picked up his pacing again, scowling. "It's not a big deal, anyway. I wasn't really planning on telling anyone."

"Why not?" David asked.

"Because...it's really not that big of deal, okay? Look, I'm happy knowing and all that, don't get me wrong, it's just that I never thought it was really important or relevant information." The winter spirit cut himself off and rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm really not thinking clearly. Can we talk about this later?"

Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "I'm going to go find North and tell him we're leaving soon. I need to stop by the house and change my clothes. Maybe we can hitch a ride with Bunny..."

"With the tunnels?" Brianna shuddered. "I'd rather not."

Jack just shrugged. "We might not have a choice. I'll be right back." With that, he headed out the door and out of sight.

Amy let out a low whistle. "Jeez, what's his problem? I mean he's always been pretty down, but this is the first time he's been all...snappish."

The group wordlessly turned to Tooth for an explanation, who looked a bit surprised before smiling wistfully and saying, "He's been part of this group for four years, but we don't know him as well as we might like. He's usually not this edgy, though; most of the time it's difficult to get him to stop bouncing off the walls."

"I find that hard to believe, honestly," Chris told her. "He's always seemed pretty...I dunno, quiet and out of it. Like he's tired all the time."

"It's true," Jamie said. "Jack's usually all over the place."

Tooth shrugged. "Well, he's had a rough week. He told me himself that he hasn't been sleeping well at all, and I don't blame him after everything that happened. Just give him some time. A few days of stirring up storms and good sleep should get him back to normal."

"Which brings us back to the problem of Jack's absence," Oliver spoke up, "If he's going to be gone a few days like he says he will, we're going to have to think of something to say to Susan to cover for him. There's no way she won't notice if he's gone for too long. And then there's still the issue of him being invisible."

"We can make Mama believe, can't we?" Sophie asked. "We made all of you guys believe, so why can't we do the same with her."

"That's probably what will end up happening," her uncle admitted. "I mean, I'd hate to see her worrying so much. The problem is how will we convince her?"

"We can figure that out later," Amy replied with a wave of her hand. "I think the thing we should worry about now is how we're going to explain why he's suddenly missing. Aunt Susan probably isn't going to get out of this without a few grey hairs."

"We'll just stall for as long as possible," Oliver sighed after the group fell into a long pause. "It's about all we can do."

* * *

Bunnymund and North seemed to be engaged in an eggnog-guzzling contest when Jack found them in the globe room, the large Russian slumped over the table looking half-conscious and Bunnymund looking superbly disinterested. He looked up as Jack came in and hopped over to him, taking care not to disturb North.

Jack stared at him, "What's going on in here?"

Bunnymund shrugged. "He gets like this whenever Seraphina comes to visit. She doesn't do it often, but it really stresses him out for some reason. I don't know, he might still be tired from Christmas too. Anyway, what's up?"

"We need to get those guys back home," Jack answered, nodding in the direction he had come. "I was hoping we could use a snowglobe or if you could send us with one of your tunnels."

"I don't think they liked the tunnels very much," Bunnymund said flatly, "but here. North keeps some snowglobes around here somewhere..." He looked around for a moment, then went and grabbed a snowglobe off a shelf on the other side of the room, tossing it to Jack, who caught it easily.

"I think you just say the address at it and the portal will open up."

"Thanks." Jack looked uncomfortable for a moment. "And, uh...thanks for everything you and Tooth did tonight. I really appreciate it."

Visibly embarrassed, Bunnymund replied, "You don't have to thank us. That's what friends are for. I'm just sorry we didn't get there sooner, before that crazy witch stuck her knife in you."

Jack shrugged. "It's really not that big of a deal. I'm fine, I just need something else to wear."

"Still, though. Sorry."

There was an awkward pause between the two, and then Jack coughed and said, "Well, I'm going to take them back home. I'll see you later."

"Yeah. See you later. I'll tell North where you went."

Jack smiled, then turned and left the room. A few minutes later, the sound of a portal opening and closing resounded through the workshop.

* * *

Susan really did not want to wake up when her alarm went off that morning. She'd stayed up far later than she should have the previous night knowing she had to wake up for work the next day, and she was sure paying for it now. That was one of the downsides of being a nurse, she supposed. You didn't get much vacation time. Sure, she got Christmas and the day prior off, but that was it.

For a moment, before she climbed out of bed, Susan wondered if it was a very good idea to leave her whole family alone in the house while she wasn't there. Linda was always the kind of person to try and cause problems, especially around people she didn't like. Susan was worried she'd try to pick a fight with Jack if she wasn't around to reign her sister in.

She sighed and finally got up, deciding to put it out of her mind. Jack could handle himself, she knew, and she shouldn't worry about him so much.

_"Why do you care so much?" _he had asked.

_"Why indeed," _was her answer.

Jack had only been in her house for a few days. Less than a week, really, so his question was honestly a valid one. Why _did_ she care so much? It went beyond just being concerned about a minor being on his own. It was like he was one of Susan's own children, a true part of the family, and she worried about him as such. Well, no matter the reason, she did consider Jack part of the family now. It was amazing what just a week could do to a person. There were still a lot of things about him that Susan didn't know and would honestly like to, but he'd get around to explaining them eventually, she was sure.

She finally climbed out of bed and left her room, heading for the kitchen and feeling slightly jealous of the children on winter break. She loved her job as a nurse, but it did leave her with hardly any vacation time and often odd hours. Jamie and Sophie usually had a babysitter when she was working, but with their whole family in the house, that wouldn't be necessary. Susan still wished she could spend more time with them; everyone usually left around New Years, and with her job she didn't get the chance to socialize as much as she would like.

She made her way to the kitchen, turned on the lights, and started up a pot of coffee, taking care to be as quiet as possible. Everyone was probably still asleep this early in the morning, and if she knew one thing about her family it was that they certainly did not appreciate being woken up before eight at the least, even the adults.

When the coffee was done, Susan poured herself a mug and looked casually out the window above the sink, before nearly choking at what she saw.

It was practically blizzarding outside, at least a foot of snow or more blanketing the whole area in white. She gaped. The weatherman had predicted clear skies all the way until early January, so where had all this snow come from? Susan frowned. Well, Burgess was known for having pretty crazy and unpredictable winters...but that didn't mean she wasn't surprised that something like this had happened when the weather had been so nice before. The snow was piled up everywhere, and the thought crossed Susan's mind that she might not be able to get into work before the plows were sent out. If they even were; sometimes they didn't clear the streets until the snow stopped falling, and judging from the way it was dumping down right now, it wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

She went to the back door and opened it up, stepping outside with a shiver. The temperature was well below freezing, and the snow was halfway up to her knees. She could barely see anything through the curtain of white snowflakes. Susan stepped back inside and cranked up the heat before walking over to the house phone, frowning when she raised it to her ear and didn't hear the dial tone. So the phone lines were down, huh? She didn't have a cell phone, so she'd be unable to call the hospital and let them know she'd be late.

Susan sighed and plopped down into a chair at the kitchen table. Today was just off to a fantastic start, wasn't it?

* * *

The weather worsened in the hours before the rest of the family woke up, the lights flickering every so often and rough winds shaking the windows. Susan busied herself with cleaning up the house's after-Christmas mess, throwing away leftover wrapping paper and washing the dishes from the large dinner the previous night. Around seven-thirty Oliver trudged down the stairs looking like he'd hardly slept at all.

"Morning," he yawned, running a hand through his tousled brown hair.

"You look terrible," his sister answered by way of greeting. She smiled; it was strange to see him without his suit and bowtie. Oliver was usually so impeccable in his appearance. "What time did you get to sleep last night?"

"Past midnight," he answered vaguely. "Wee hours of the morning."

"What were you doing to keep you up so late?"

He rubbed his eyes. "You don't want to know."

Susan shrugged. "You shouldn't stay up so late then wake up too early. It's not good for you. I'm worried enough about your eating habits as it is."

"Susie, I know you're a nurse and all that, but I'm thirty-two years old. You can stop treating me like one of the kids."

She rolled her eyes and passed him a mug of coffee. "Only when you stop acting like one. And I'm thirty-five. Don't you think it's about time you stopped calling me Susie?"

"I stop calling you Susie the same day I stop calling Linda 'the Lindronaut'. Which is to say, never, because it's entertaining."

Susan and Oliver shared a laugh at that. Oliver had bequeathed that nickname onto Linda when he was seven because, in his words, she was a sentient alien steamroller disguised as a haughty blonde human female. It remained sort of a joke among the Bennett adults, and Linda herself still had no idea.

"Is anyone else up yet?" Susan asked. Oliver shrugged.

"I thought I heard Shannon and Dan moving around, but I can't be sure. Might have just been Hunter or Addy making a break for it. Chelsea's awake, but she's still upstairs reading and probably won't come out for a while. No idea about Linda and Jim, and everyone else is out cold. I think all the kids stayed up late too."

Oliver's tone was perfectly casual, almost too much so, but Susan didn't pay it any mind and instead chalked it up to her brother's general oddness and sleep-deprived state. He looked out the window and commented mildly, "Lovely weather we're having. Wonder where all that came from."

"Who knows?" she sighed. "All I know is that I should have been at work forty-five minutes ago. I'd call in, but the phone lines are down."

Her brother looked out the window again. "The snow really is piling up. It looks like we're going to be stuck here for a while until it clears up."

"I guess so." Susan straightened her glasses and stretched. "Well, I'm in the middle of cleaning the house right now, so I'm going to get back to that."

"Have fun," Oliver replied, and turned to leave the kitchen. He stopped abruptly when Shannon walked in holding little Gavin, just short of running into her. Shannon was frowning and looked rather worried.

Susan and Oliver both bade her good morning, and she answered back with a strained smile before saying, "Susan, is Jack awake?"

Susan blinked. "Not that I know of. All the kids are still asleep. Why?"

Shannon bit her bottom lip. "Well, as I was waking up, Gavin wandered off and went into the boys' room. I went in to get him and Jack wasn't there. I thought that was strange so I checked the other rooms, but I can't find him anywhere."

"So what are you saying?" Susan asked quietly, eyes wide. Behind her, Oliver wore a very uncomfortable expression. This was _bad. _

Shannon shifted Gavin to her other side, looking uncertain. "I...can't be sure, and we should check thoroughly, but I think he's gone. Jack's not here."

* * *

**A/N:**

**I said this was going to be the last chapter.**

**I lied.**

**See, that was just such a good place to cut off. I had to. So, it's not the end **_**quite**_** yet; there's still one chapter after this. I'm sorry. **

**By the way, I've started a new story. It's called Winter Nights, and it's about human!Jack and his sister. Pre-movie thing. It'd really mean a lot if some of you could check it out, if you're interested. I also have a new story-related poll on my profile.**

**Alright, enough of the shameless self-promotion. Reply time!**

**SugarSweetObsessed: Good for you, catching my obscure references! The witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts were real, however, and I was referencing those more than ParaNorman. The Tangled one is spot-on, though. **

**naien543: Actually, Katherine is Mother Goose, or at least she will be. I know that much.**

**Angel of Love and Fluffy Stuff: Whoops, I just spoiled a bunch of book stuff for you. Y'know, maybe part of the magic of the Guardians is preventing the adults from questioning what's happening. Like when random gifts and eggs and quarters turn up, magic prevents the adults from going all WHO THE FUCK WAS IN MY HOUSE LAST NIGHT. Yeah. Good theory, I'm smart. **

**TomatoSoupful: I actually love the name Evangeline. You're lucky.**

**Thoytsi: Hardly any of the Doctor Who references were intentional. The only intentional one was Oliver. Amelia, Rose, and David were all complete accidents. **

**readandwrite4evernever20: Yay, I'm helping people! And I think it's funny how people tell me I improve with each chapter while I think the quality's deteriorated as I've gone on. Funny thing, perspective. And my OCs are underdeveloped and flat specifically to avoid what's happening in the rest of the fandom XD Thank you!**

**Lokithenightfury: Aww, I'm pretty sure I'm not a professional writer. Just a hobbyist. **

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**Okay, NEXT chapter's the last one. I promise.**


	28. Chapter 28

For the first time, Jamie knew how it felt to be Jack. Not normal immortal winter-spirit Jack; the exhausted human Jack who was always sleeping yet was still tired all the time.

After the activity of the previous night they'd all gone home via one of the magic snowglobes, which had conveniently opened up in Jamie's bedroom. Jack had hurriedly changed his clothes and was back out the window with a hurried promise of being back as soon as possible, and then he was gone in a flurry of frigid wind and stray snowflakes. Oliver bid them all a weary goodnight and stumbled down the hall to his own room, and everyone else simply collapsed on the spot, too worn out to move. Brianna, Chris, and David were spread on the floor, while Amy, Jamie, and Sophie piled on the bed. It was an honestly uncomfortable situation, but the group was too tired to care.

It was almost noon when they began to stir, starting with Jamie himself. He gently pushed Sophie off of him and sat up rubbing his eyes, yawning and looking around bemusedly at the other bodies around him. As he watched, Brianna sat up as well, brushing strands of dark hair out of her face.

"Morning," she mumbled.

"You too..."

One by one the others woke up as well, until eventually they all sat in a slumped, bleary-eyed circle, not quite prepared to go downstairs just yet.

David spoke up first, "So...last night was real, right?"

Everyone nodded in unison, and Jamie gestured out the window to the blizzard raging outside. It was impossible to see through the curtain of white. "Check it out."

As if on cue, a strong wind shook the house and the lights flickered.

"Jeez," Amy said, releasing her breath in a long huff. "Jack's doing all that?"

Jamie and Sophie nodded again together.

"I don't suppose there's any way to tell him to, y'know, lighten up? It looks like the power's gonna go out if the storm keeps up like this."

Jamie shook his head this time. "He always tells us to make sure to stay inside whenever he's making big storms 'cause you never know what could happen. The bigger ones are harder to control."

"Isn't that his job, though?" Chris asked. "Controlling that stuff, I mean."

"Jack says the problem with winter is that it's unpredictable sometimes, and pretty dangerous too because it's all cold and you could die if you stay out too long," Sophie explained with a pretty decent imitation of Oliver's lecture voice. "He has to be careful a lot of the time too."

The rest fell silent, thinking about this information, then Brianna picked up, "So how did you meet this guy? I mean if he was invisible and all, and where'd he come from in the first place?"

"Oh. Well that's kind of a long story."

Jamie made a noise of agreement, "And Soph was only three, so it's not like she would remember much of it anyway."

"Hey! I do too!"

And they were off, tripping over each other in their hurry to describe to their cousins the events of four years ago, starting with Sophie describing the Warren in admirable detail and then both going into the final battle against Pitch Black, the Boogeyman. Jamie's face lit up when Jack finally came into his part of the story, and he smiled broadly at the memory of the frost rabbit coming to life and then exploding into hundreds of tiny snowflakes. The others seemed to get really into the story as well, reacting together when the two younger kids got graphic. Sure, a few things were embellished, but in the minds of the Bennett siblings, no good story was complete without that.

Jamie was just getting into the part where Jack was beginning to get sworn in as a Guardian when he was interrupted by a knock on his bedroom door. The group turned and Oliver walked in, looking grim and more than a little guilty.

"Oh good, you're all awake," he said with an unconvincing smile. "Bad news. Jig's up, kids."

Amy narrowed her eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Wellll," Oliver replied, stretching out the word and looking up at the ceiling, "It means that we don't really have to worry about covering for Jack anymore. Susan knows he's gone. Actually, everyone knows he's gone now."

"What?!"

"How did they figure it out so fast?" Chris asked.

"It was pretty straightforward, actually. They looked in this room, looked all over the house, and he wasn't here. Susan's downstairs panicking about the bad weather at the moment, so I'd not go down there if I were you. I told her Jack probably just went out for a walk or something and got caught up in the storm."

"And she believed you?" Brianna raised her eyebrows.

"Not much else she could believe, is there?" Oliver just shrugged. "She's not in the best of moods of course; she's worried that he's out in the storm, freezing to death. And of course Linda isn't making anything better. She's going on about how she had Jack pinned from the start and was just waiting for the chance to take off again. She can't find anything that's been stolen though, so she can't make accusations like that, at least."

Quietly, so much so that they could barely hear him, Oliver muttered as an afterthought, "We should lock her outside and see how she likes it..."

Sophie blinked. "Are you sure you're an adult?"

"Anyway!" the man clapped his hands together, ignoring his niece's question, "Yeah, Susan'll be after you guys for potential answers when she sees you. Just keep it together so she doesn't catch onto us knowing anything and we'll be fine."

* * *

Being outside in the open air again felt more wonderful than Jack could ever describe. He hadn't known until then how much he had missed stirring up storms and swooping effortlessly about the skies with the wind, and generally just doing what he was supposed to do. He hadn't been aware of just how much being human had taken a toll on him, but now it all seemed to be falling away. The sleepless nights, the bad dreams, everything. He was himself again.

The first day hurt. Jack had underestimated how much power he was restraining, and now it exploded out of him as an unstoppable force of nature. Burgess was buried underneath at least two feet of snow by the end of the morning, and it didn't stop there. He could barely see the town through the flurry of thick storm clouds he had conjured up, and he could feel when the power went out across the area. Jack sent out a silent apology to the Bennetts. Whoops.

On the second day, the twenty-seventh, he managed to reign himself in enough to drop down on the North Pole and spend an hour or two with the other Guardians for their Christmas celebrations. He apologized for not being able to stay longer, but they understood. Apparently just a little bit of time was good enough for them, and Jack got to refuel a bit while he was there before he took off again, this time hovering around Canada to get it out. The need to let his powers began to die down around midnight of that same day, thankfully, so he began making his way back towards Burgess. Exhausted and worn down, he honestly was not all that excited about getting back to the Bennett house.

He frowned as he flew, deep in thought. Would Susan believe he existed? He doubted it. She was an adult, and a conversation from four years prior rang ominously through his mind.

_"Who's Jack Frost?"_ Jamie had asked.

_"No one sweetie, it's just an expression."_

_And therein lies the problem_, Jack thought dryly to himself. She thought Jack Frost was just an expression. Not that he could blame her; after all, most people did. But he didn't want to worry her any more than he surely already had. He didn't know what kind of cover story the others had come up with to explain his absence but he honestly doubted it worked for too long. Which meant Susan might be pulling her hair out worrying about him, and he felt guilty about that. He didn't want to cause the woman any stress after everything she'd done for him.

He mused about this as he finally dropped into Burgess on the morning of the twenty-eighth. He couldn't tell if the power was back up or not, but he assumed so from seeing cars moving around the streets. The snowfall hadn't stopped completely, but it wasn't blizzarding anymore. Jack was tired and really wanted to get some sleep, but he needed to get this over with. He swooped down on the Bennett house, frowning when he didn't see anybody in Jamie's room. Susan's car was in the driveway, along with a couple others he could only assume belonged to the other adults, so they were definitely home but Jack didn't want to get a lot of attention by checking in the family room, where there would surely be a lot of people there. He crossed over to Sophie's room and peered through the window.

The only person he saw in there was Brianna, sprawled across the bed and apparently reading a book. That was odd, considering who it was. Well, Jack thought, she'll have to do. He rapped lightly on the glass and her head snapped up, swiveling in the direction of the window.

Brianna's eyes widened and she jumped off the bed, hurrying to the window and pulling it open. "You're back!" she exclaimed, stepping aside to let Jack into the room. "You sure took your time."

"Yeah, I know," he sighed, shaking snowflakes out of his hair. Brianna stepped back further. "Are you alone? Where's everyone else?"

"Everyone else is downstairs. Aunt Susan's been flipping out, just so you know. Aunt Linda too, but in a different way. It's good you're back."

Jack raised his eyebrows at her. It was strange to hear Brianna say anything positive about him, however mild it was. "Should we go get the others and decide our plan of action, then? We can't just charge around saying 'Hey, Jack's here!'" You'll have to do it."

She nodded, but stayed still, looking uncertain. "Um...hey."

"What?"

"Well, while you've been gone, I've been thinking..." Brianna bit her lip and shyly swept her long dark hair over her shoulder. "I just, uh..."

Jack frowned, concerned. She was usually so bad-tempered, what was this new attitude? "Are you alright?"

"Yes. It's just..." Her breath rushed out in a heavy sigh and she said very quickly, "IwantedtosayI'msorryforbefore."

"Wait, what?" Jack gaped incredulously. "You're apologizing? What for?"

Brianna's face, blushing before, now darkened into a furious shade of red. "For all the stuff I said to you on Christmas Eve. And for being a general bitch. I was wrong about you, and so's Aunt Linda. So I'm sorry." She crossed her arms and lowered her eyes to the floor, refusing to look at Jack.

Dumbstruck, the winter spirit blinked rapidly and said slowly, "That's...okay, I guess. I mean, I can't really blame you for thinking like that. My 'backstory' had a lot of holes, after all."

"Yeah, but...after everything that happened on Christmas, and that witch and stuff, I realized that everything I thought was wrong." Brianna rubbed her arms. "It was mean and unnecessary. I see that about Aunt Linda now, too. She's wrong about everything. I wish I could say something to her about it."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Uh...sure?"

"Why are you so close to her, anyway? I mean, if that was all it took for you to see that, then how come you stuck with her for so long?" Jack saw the look on her face and hastily assured, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"...I dunno," Brianna mumbled after a beat of silence, shrugging. "Maybe it's 'cause my own parents don't give me the time of day. They're always so busy with Hunter and Addy and Gavin. Aunt Linda's the only one in this whole family who pays attention to me."

Jack, recalling all of Brianna's bickering with Amy and her general attitude towards everyone else, nodded. "That makes sense. And I totally get it."

She looked surprised. "You do?"

"What, doing things or hanging out with certain people that will get you attention? Just wanting attention in general? Yeah, I know the feeling."

He grinned at her, and after a moment, she hesitantly returned it, looking relieved.

"Right," Brianna coughed, her relieved look turning embarrassed. "Let's go get everyone else and figure something out before Aunt Susan's head explodes."

* * *

Susan was not having a good day. Granted, the past few days since Christmas hadn't been fantastic, so it was probably too much to expect that this one would be any better. Jack had suddenly gone missing the day after Christmas, a massive blizzard prevented her from looking for him and put the power out for at least two days, and Linda had been unbearable through all of it. The other woman had been going on for ages about how she knew Jack was just going to take off as soon as 'he got what he wanted' which made no sense to Susan because all Jack had really gotten out of his stay at her house was a jacket, and she highly doubted that was what he was after this whole time. The only thing to do was to just sigh and roll her eyes whenever Linda got started.

Susan, sitting in the study, leaned on her elbow and stared dully at her laptop. The power had finally come back on sometime in the middle of the night, so she was taking the opportunity to check her email. She hated that she hadn't been able to go into work for the past few days, but no much could be done about that now. With no power and the roads out of commission, the whole family had developed a decent case of cabin fever.

A knock sounded through the door and she called out "Come in," looking up as Oliver poked his head into the room.

"Are you busy?" he asked, sounding somewhat nervous. Susan could spot Amy's bright red hair and Jamie's small form in the hallway behind her brother.

"No," she answered, stretching. "Come on in, what's up?"

As it turned out, Oliver certainly wasn't alone. Practically all the kids, with the exception of the youngest ones, were now crowded into the study with apprehensive expressions of various intensity.

"Well," Oliver wet his lips, "Let's just cut to the chase. We know where Jack is."

Susan bolted upright, not noticing the sudden drop in the room temperature. "What?!"

"He's in this room."

"...Excuse me?" Susan sighed heavily and dropped down in this room, giving everyone present a weary glare. "Guys, this is serious. Please don't joke about things like that."

"It's true, Mom!" Jamie insisted. "He's here! You just can't see him!"

"This again, Jamie? You've told me things like this hundreds of times, and now is not the time for it. Be serious, what do you need?"

"We're not lying," Amy crossed her arms, her mouth set in a tight line.

"You have to believe in him," Chris nodded.

"Susan, please... If you could just momentarily go back to being a child for just a minute, you won't regret it." Oliver couldn't help but curse himself for sounding like he was begging in desperation.

Susan frowned. "Oliver, are you ok-"

"Mom, please listen to him. Jack's here in this room, but you won't be able to see him unless if you truly believe he's here," Jamie begged.

"Yeah!" Sophie piped up, and the others nodded.

Susan blinked. Her children too? Well, Jamie and Sophie always adamantly believed in these mythical creatures, so she wasn't too surprised they were siding with their uncle Oliver. But the others - Amy, Chris, David, even Brianna - suddenly seemed to have been on some crazy ride overnight and were yearning for her to see something that was obviously not there. Or...was there? She narrowed her eyes at the empty space her son was desperately motioning to, but to no avail.

"Mom, please..." The desperation became obvious in Jamie's voice. "It's okay if it's only for a second, but PLEASE, just...believe?"

At that moment, something flickered before Susan's eyes. She would've disregarded it if it wasn't for her children insisting that there was indeed something that was invisible to her. Starting to consider that her children weren't as crazy in the head as she thought, she focused more and she could finally see a shape materializing in front of her.

But...how was that possible? She was an adult, for crying out loud, she'd stopped believing in things like this a long time ago. It was childish. And yet...

Susan, observed by her anxious family members, squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. Well then. There definitely was something there, no denying it. Was she going crazy? That was a plausible explanation, not taking into account that the rest of her family could see it too.

The shape became almost completely solid now. She held back an audible gasp. She could tell what the shape was making out to be now. It was Jack–yes, the Jack that she had been convinced was missing–although his hair, which undoubtedly was supposed to be brown, was now white. Not to mention his skin appeared unhealthily pale like he had stayed out in the cold for too long. And...she blinked rapidly. He was wearing the same tattered brown trousers she had found him in, and he was wearing the jacket she got him for Christmas.

Susan's breath rushed out. "Wh-What in the name of..."

Jamie's face lit up with a bright, ecstatic smile. "You see him?!"

Unable to speak, his mother swallowed and nodded wordlessly. What was going on?

Completely solid now, the strange Jack smiled awkwardly and gave a little wave. "Uh...hi."

Susan rubbed her suddenly sore temples. "I would think I'm hallucinating out of tiredness if it weren't for my family assuring me that what I'm seeing is real..."

Jack grinned sheepishly. "Right, um... I'm real, so...don't worry?" He was actually handling this much better than he predicted he would.

Susan glanced at him wearily. "Explain..."

"I'm glad this worked," Jack continued, seemingly ignoring her, "I wasn't really expecting it to, I had to be convinced by everyone else." He gestured half-heartedly towards the others in the room.

Suddenly aware of all the pairs of eyes fixated on her and the white-haired boy, Susan realized she wanted to talk to Jack alone.

"Can everyone please clear out for a moment?" she addressed her family, "I...want to talk to him alone for a bit."

A few, like Oliver, Jamie, and Sophie, looked like the wanted to argue, but a sharp look from the woman sent them filing out of the room with the others, leaving Jack alone with Susan. He was looking nervous now.

Once they were alone, Susan crossed her arms.

Explain," she said again.

Jack bit his lip, refusing to look at her. "Well...it's a long story."

"You disappeared without warning for days on end, causing me all kinds of stress, and suddenly reappear literally out of thin air! I think you can spare a few minutes of your time."

Jack flinched, but Susan spoke more with the air of a mother scolding her child for running off, so he relaxed after a moment.

"Well," he finally began tentatively. "Clearly I'm not who you think I am."

"I think that was established."

"Okay, remember when Oliver was talking about how there was a boy some 300 years ago who drowned in the nearby lake?"

With a small nod from Susan, he continued, "Just to make it straightforward, I'm that boy. I died in that lake and I was resurrected by the moon. The Man in the Moon, I mean. He made me the Spirit of Winter, Jack Frost. I've been spending the past few centuries spreading snow around the globe, but a few days ago, I...got attacked by the Spirit of Autumn and turned human. Then you found me."

Susan stared at him. "You're kidding me."

Jack gave a tight-lipped smile. "I am not."

"How am I supposed to believe that?!"

"Well clearly you do!" He spread his arms with a hopeless expression. "I mean, considering you can see me, and all."

Susan stepped forward. "What does that mean?"

"You have to believe in me to see me. You see me, so clearly you believe in magic to some extent."

There it was. The word magic, the one she'd been putting off thinking, let alone actually saying out loud. It was real.

Susan inhaled deeply through her nose. "Alright. Why don't we just take this slowly? Like...twenty questions or something. No offense, but your explanation just now didn't really do much for me."

Jack shrugged and grinned. "Sure, have at it."

"First off, how did my family know about this before me?"

Jack looked like he'd rather not answer that question. "Let's just say that some stuff happened the other night night... I think you'd take it better if you heard the full story from the others."

Susan nodded. That was acceptable. "Why were you resurrected? Surely you had to have done something, right?"

Jack tried to smile, but it turned out to seem more like a grimace. "That's another long story. I think it's better if I answer that another day."

"Are there any others that are like you?"

Jack was relieved to finally hear a question that didn't make him uncomfortable. "Yeah. All those legends your son believes in—Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, even the Sandman—they're all real too. In fact, the five of us are all Guardians of Childhood, meaning we preside over the children of the world and protect them until they reach adulthood."

"So...you. What are you, specifically."

"Jack Frost. Spirit of Winter. Nice to meet you," he added dryly with a mock little bow.

"...Jack Frost. Right. One last question about that. Do you really nip at people's noses?"

Susan had not expected Jack's cheeks to turn purple (she assumed that was his version of a blush) and mutter quietly, "I honestly don't know where that expression came up..."

She laughed despite herself. "Next topic. How old are you?"

"Uh...over three hundred."

Susan stared some more, laughter gone. "Really."

"Yes."

"You don't seem three hundred."

"All of us are eternally young, to an extent," Jack explained. "I'm stuck in my teenage years until the end of time. Besides, three hundred years isn't a long time compared to everyone else."

"I see."

They fell into an awkward silence for a long moment, then Susan cleared her throat.

"Speaking in more recent terms, what's been going on this past week? Why do you look so different, and why did you suddenly disappear?" Susan fixed Jack with a stern look. "I was very worried about you, you know. You may be older than me, but that's no excuse."

He sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry. Here's what happened..."

He gave her a brief summation of the events leading up to his turning up, and what had happened Christmas night. She interjected with questions every so often but for the most part, the story went uninterrupted.

"...and then Mother Nature showed up, believe it or not, and explained a bunch of stuff about Eve then left. Once she was gone, I brought everyone else back here and took off to go make storms, and here we are." Jack shrugged. "Like I said, the others could explain it better."

Susan's eyes were practically popping out of her head.

"Not exactly a story you hear someone tell you everyday, isn't it," Jack added.

Susan shook her head. "This is quite a lot to take in..."

"Isn't there something else you want to tell her?" Oliver quipped, appearing in the doorway.

"What?" Jack frowned, not knowing what the professor was talking about.

Chris appeared from behind Oliver. "You know...about our apparent relation to you."

Jack's eyes widened. "Guys!" he snapped. "I told you, I don't want everyone to know about that!"

"Yet you told her everything else. Seems legit." Oliver shrugged.

"Can't you do it?"

"No," the two newcomers replied in unison.

"You're the adult here," Chris smirked. "Technically speaking, of course."

Susan looked curious. "What are you on about?"

Jack looked like he wanted to be invisible again. "Uh... I had a sister back when I was human, and..." Oh, he really wasn't enjoying this. "She got married and had kids and generations later, you were born and then Jamie was born and then Sophie was born—oh man, I just can't find the right words for it," he groaned, covering his face with his hands. "What I'm trying to say is, my sister is your great-great-great-how-many-greats grandmother, making me your great-great-great-how-many-greats uncle."

"...That's it," Susan announced, plopping down on the floor with a distinct childlike air and crossing her legs. "Final straw. I'm broken, good job."

Oliver sent Jack a mildly interested glance. "You broke my sister."

Jack, who still had his face buried in his hands, just mumbled, "Sorry..."

"So what now?" Oliver picked up, turning his back on the winter spirit and redirecting his gaze towards Susan. He nodded towards Jack, "Kid's still invisible, and I doubt Shannon, Danny, Jim, and the Lindronaut are gonna be all 'Magic! Yes, totally real!'"

"Especially not Linda," Susan added. "With the attitude she's always had towards you, I doubt she would think highly of you even if she ends up seeing you."

Jack peeked an eye out. "I was kind of hoping you guys would make up a cover story for me, actually..."

"Like what?" Brianna asked snidely, appearing at Chris's elbow. "'Hey, we know where Jack is. He ran away and totally ditched all of us'?" I doubt any of them would like that answer."

Jack looked at her, along with everyone else who had all appeared in the doorway. "In my opinion, at least that's better than having to explain my backstory for the third time in one day." A thin trail of frost crept down his staff and wove itself into the carpet at his agitation. He hastily covered it with his foot.

"That's true," Oliver conceded.

"What about Child Services?" Amy asked, poking her head through the door. "He got picked up by Child Services."

"What's up with all of you popping in one by one?" Jack questioned. "Anyway, don't you think it's a little, I dunno, sudden to be picked up by Child Services?" He scanned the room, looking for any better ideas. "Especially considering we've just had a blizzard that put the power out for a while. Thanks to me," he added as an afterthought.

"How about you went out into the blizzard and...froze to death?" David suggested, also coming into view. The room was getting pretty cramped again at this point.

"...No," Jack deadpanned. "Just...no. That's going to make everyone worry more."

Besides, I already did that once.

"Hm..." Susan frowned thoughtfully. "This is complicated."

"Yep," Jack agreed stretching. He could feel his power building up again and grimaced. Apparently he didn't do as thorough a job getting rid of it as he thought. "We do need to think of something," he pushed with an urgent edge.

"Can I just point out that whatever we say will make you seem like a little jerk since you never really said goodbye to anyone?" Amy inquired, straightening her glasses.

Jack halfheartedly glared at her. "Well I don't think we can really do anything about that, can we?"

"Our cover story has to indicate that you left before the blizzard started, which is true," Oliver mused. "Or else, like David said, it'll make it seem like you froze to death."

Jack frowned, deep in thought, then snapped his fingers. "Got it," he grinned, catching the attention of the others. "We'll say I got picked up by some long-lost relatives before the storm hit, then wasn't able to phone in until the lines got their power back. It's not perfect, but it should work."

"Well we don't have anything better, so we might as well say that," Oliver shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe we could add in that you had called in and told them that you were here. Just so nobody's going to ask how they knew where to pick you up."

"That'll work if the people we're telling the story to are about as intelligent as a can of spray cheese," Amy chipped in brightly. "And let's face it, they are."

"Be nice," Susan scolded, then sighed. "Well, if it's the best we got..."

"Um..." Everyone looked to Jack as he raised his hand. "I, uh, need to go out again. Do I have to stick around for this? I mean, it's not like they can see me anyway."

"You're leaving again?" Susan blinked.

"Well, yeah..." Jack looked rather ashamed of himself. "I didn't get all the storms out of me I could have, and since I've been out of commission for a while there are still a ton of places all over the world I need to cover. I'll come back though!" he added hastily.

Jamie and Sophie finally entered the room again for themselves. "We heard you were leaving, Jack?"

"Yeah," the winter spirit confirmed with a small, sincere smile. Jamie looked disappointed and opened his mouth to say something, but Jack cut him off with "Again, I'll be back as soon as I can make it. Just let me know what everyone says, alright?"

Everyone nodded, said goodbye, and began to exit the room to face the music. The 'music' being the reactions of the rest of the family, especially Linda. Jack was somewhat relieved he wouldn't be around to see it.

Susan caught Jack's elbow as he turned to leave and gently pulled him aside. "Jack..."

"Yeah?" he replied, confused. "What's up?"

"Do you..." She hesitated. "Do you have anywhere to stay, on a regular basis?"

Jack paused, wondering why she was asking that, then decided to just be honest. "Not particularly," he said at last. "I usually just find someplace cold and bury myself in a snowbank. Either that or I find a tree branch to sleep on. Sometimes I crash at the North Pole, but I'm not typically in that area very often. Why?"

"If you're okay with this, you could always come here to sleep for a night or too," Susan said. "I'm sure my kids would like that as well." She could see that Jamie and Sophie had a strong bond with Jack even without knowing the whole story, and it explained a lot of things about their actions when Jack had first started staying with them.

Jack was silent for a minute, then asked what he had asked her on Christmas morning. "Why do you care? I mean, I've just dropped a whole ton of unbelievable information on you, and you're taking it really well."

Susan gave a tiny hint of a knowing smile. "Why indeed," she repeated. "I suppose it's because you're a part of the family now. Both literally and metaphorically. There's still a lot I don't understand, but I'll find it all out eventually. We have time. Until then, stop by and stay as often as you can."

"...Thank you," Jack replied, really meaning it. He fingered the sleeve of his jacket. "This is really nice, by the way. Thanks."

"Of course."

They smiled at each other, then Susan surprised him by pulling him in for a hug. He was very cold, which she thought was strange and yet made sense at the same time. There were a lot of things she didn't yet understand and a lot of stories that needed to be told, but it could wait. If he had to leave, all she had to do was be patient until he came back. And he would. He wasn't one to just disappear on his family.

They broke apart and Jack gave her a small wave before walking over to the window, opening it, and taking off into the open air. Susan looked after him for a moment, then turned and left the room, shutting the door with a note of finality.

* * *

_It had been almost a year since he'd risen from the pond. During that time he'd been trying to get a hang of his powers, and now knew enough to do his job properly, at least. He was going back to the town the pond had been near to bring the first snowfall of the winter season. Jack didn't know why he felt so attached to that place, but he felt like he needed to be there. As if the place was important to him in some way he didn't know._

_He swooped down on the village, not worrying about being seen but not too happy about being invisible, either. He was starting to get used to it, but that didn't mean it still didn't hurt. Either way, it didn't mean he didn't like doing his job as the Spirit of Winter. He liked seeing the looks on the children's faces as they looked out their windows at the snowfall, and he liked it when they stumbled outside pulling on warm clothes as they went to play. He joined in sometimes, pretending he was a part of the group. It made him feel less alone._

_On this particular day, Jack consented to just sitting and watching, occasionally tossing a snowball into the cluster of children to keep the activity going. He was drifting off, about to space out, when his thoughts were interrupted by a little girl's call of "Rosie, come on outside! It's snowing! Come play with us!"_

_Jack turned and looked and saw the girl who had spoken standing at the door of a small cottage tugging on the hand of what he assumed to be her friend. The other girl, Rosie, looking uncertain and glanced around the area. She was only around eight or nine years old, and looked a bit lost even though she hadn't even stepped outside yet. Like she was waiting for someone who wasn't there to give her the push she needed._

_He grinned. That girl needed to loosen up. Jack scooped up a handful of snow and quickly formed it into a ball, then sent it flying over the heads of the playing children and straight into Rosie's face. She stumbled back, exclaiming in shock and blinking snow out of her eyes. Her friend laughed and Rosie looked like she wanted to be angry, glaring around to see who had thrown it, but Jack could see his magic working as she did so. Eventually her face broke into a small, hesitant smile, and she laughed and followed her friend outside._

_Jack leaned back and crossed his arms, satisfied. He didn't know that Rosie girl in particular, but he was glad to see her play with the others after she looked so sad before. She was happy, so he was as well._

* * *

**A/N:**

**...Well. The end sure was a long time coming, wasn't it? I got myself obsessed with BBC's Sherlock and I have an ACT test coming up tomorrow, and because of that my temper has been boiling very close to the surface these days and the only way to keep it down was to throw myself into a fandom that wasn't this one. Anyway, a TON of thanks are in order to BobaAddict without whom this chapter would not have been possible. I am a lazy fuck and she helped me write quite a bit of it, so thanks so much to you, Boba! Everyone, make sure you thank her. And check out her stories, they're fabulous.**

**Some people have been wondering about a sequel for this story. There won't be one, sorry, and here's the reason: I think sequels ruin everything that isn't Kung Fu Panda and A Very Potter Musical. I've done a sequel for another story before and, just...nope. It doesn't work for me.**

**So now you're probably wondering what else I'm going to do, if not a sequel. Weeeell, I'm still busy with Snowflakes, of course, and Winter Nights, and hopefully my genderbend story Alone in the World. I'm starting a story called Corruption soon, and my ParaNorman one. AAAND after all that, I'm going to do something big. If you've been on my Facebook page for a while you know what it is, and it's spelled out in the poll on my profile too. So I'm not even getting a break after finishing this. I'd really like it if some of you could, like...gravitate over to those stories, because I love all the people who've read this story and I don't want this chapter to be the last time I see you.**

**And now I shall reply to reviews for the last time.**

**GhostGirl58: My inspiration for this story...hm. God, I don't even remember. You know when you're trying to fall asleep or you're in the shower or something, and a random idea just flies into your head? I think that's what happened. Humanity by Rand0m Smil3z and Powerless Guardian by BobaAddict might have also had something to do with it.**

**readandwrite4evernever20: Did you know I love you? Because I do. Thank you for everything.**

**Aurum Le Greyhound: I really hope I get you attracted to some of my other stories in the future. Your narrative skills, I love them...**

**Danny Hellcat: Shame? No, I'm afraid that's something I'm unfamiliar with, sorry.**

**daughterofthehunt: Sometimes I forget David exists too. He literally serves no purpose, he's only really there because I needed/wanted a bigger cast to work with. But he IS there. He's a cousin. My OCs are really only there for plot conveniece, my mind deemed developing them unnecessary.**

**Thanks to the Guests, xxDarkHuntress23xx, xKireyy, Dude, islay12, Alaia Skyhawk, RandomKrazyPerson, Dragowolf, Lovepuppy316, KaiFudo16, bug349, Nika Nicolette, Frost and Winter Chills, Silver-09, CrystalxRose, Lokithenightfury, feathered moon wings, GuestFan, Sora Tayuya, CelticGirl7, Dark Inu Fan, Q-A the Authoress, poptropican, InsaneKuroNeko, WitchScale212, random person, .latchem, OtakuAme, Luna Awesomesauce 1012, StarStreakedSky, LegendOfZeldaFreak, Moonstar Daughter of Hades, TeddyBear98, Stormgirl415, Scriptor Sapiens, Arielle Claire, I am the HERO AMERICA, Dream Theme, Crimson Zephyr, winter's-lion, CGryffindorGrimm, KarToon12, Soshoryu, khoathkeeper13, Usachan, xheartkruezx, Aerrow4Ever, MagicGold34, MechaBunny, otaco, Arkie, Nicole Worley, Camelot Emrys, Scriptor Sapiens, SpaceCaseWriter, tsSwitzerlish, Phoebe Sophia, Googs04, A Neverending Dream of Flight, Matsukaze Tenma, Galaya, Lolxxx, Kaylee, NerdyWriterGirl, Uniquely X, Cool Cat, sing, ShiverTwitch, and Arkie.**

**Thanks to EVERYONE, really. Look how far you've gotten me. This is the furthest I've ever gotten on a story, the first one I've ever completed, and it's all thanks to you guys. I could never have done it without all that support, and you guys have no idea the scope of what you've done for me. Really. You give me feels. Thank you so much for putting up with my occasional angry rants, underdeveloped and boring OCs, wonky updating schedule...really. You're the best followers anyone could have.**

**Hopefully I'll see you all soon!**


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